COLUMBIA, Mo. _ Former Missouri basketball player Terrence Phillips announced last week that he had been cleared in three of the four Title IX complaints brought against him. He admitted only to being responsible for intimate partner violence, a Title IX violation, because he pushed an ex-girlfriend in 2016.
It turns out that wasn't the whole story.
Documents shared with The Star on Tuesday confirmed a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report that Phillips was also found responsible for violating Section 3 of the MU Title IX office's policy on Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct in Education. The section includes "exposing one's genitals to another under circumstances in which one should reasonably know that the conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm."
Documents shared with The Star confirmed that a three-person panel unanimously found Phillips responsible for texting a picture of his genitals to a woman.
The same woman also filed a complaint that Phillips violated Section 4 of the same policy, Stalking on the Basis of Sex. The three-person panel unanimously found Phillips not responsible for this.
Last week, in a lengthy statement Phillips released on Twitter, he mentioned complainants A, C, D and E and said he was found "not responsible of the allegations against me of sexual misconduct, rape, exploitation, and stalking." He did not mention the woman to whom he sent a picture of his genitals, Complainant B.
After Phillips released his statement, The Star reached out to four of the five women who filed complaints against Phillips, including the woman he admitted to pushing, a woman whose complaint the Title IX office did not pursue, and Complainant B.
Complainant B has not spoken to The Star but did talk to the Post-Dispatch, and the paper reported that she filed a complaint in Sept. 15 and was informed by the Title IX office on Dec. 18 that an investigation into her complaint was moving forward. The office delivered a verdict regarding this woman's claims to Phillips on June 6, based on documents shared with The Star.
Complainant B told the Post-Dispatch that Phillips repeatedly contacted her within a week of their first meeting and would text her photos of her car outside her workplace at the time, a popular Columbia bar.
"I literally couldn't turn around and not have him there," she said to the Post-Dispatch. "He would stand outside and wait at my car for me to get off work. It was absolutely insane."
Phillips eventually worked at the same bar as Complainant B, and she viewed this as an attempt by Phillips to "intimidate her," according to Title IX documents. "The Panel found Mr. Phillips credible when he testified that he had known two managers at (the bar) prior this acquaintance with the Complainant," according to the same documents. When those managers became employees at a new bar, Phillips followed them there, where he still presently works.
"Thus, the Panel found that Mr. Phillips did not seek employment at (the original bar) in order to stalk the Complainant, even though his presence there may have been uncomfortable for her," the Title IX office explained in the reasoning section of its verdict letter regarding this woman's complaints.
Regarding the picture of his genitals, Phillips testified to the Title IX panel that the complainant had selectively deleted some text messages in their conversation and thus "mischaracterized her response to his comments and actions," according to the same reasoning section of the letter. "The Panel found this testimony credible and supported by disjointed nature of the seven text messages. ... However, Mr. Phillips acknowledges that he sent the images within a matter of days of his meeting the Complainant and ... knew or should have known that Complainant (B) would find the texting of images of his genitals unwelcome."
In the verdict letter, the Title IX office issued Phillips a warning for sending the picture of his genitals and encouraged him to "more thoughtfully consider the perceptions of his conduct in the future. A repetition of this conduct would likely be viewed more seriously and in a harsher sanction."
Phillips did not appeal the verdict.
The former Mizzou guard who sparingly played this past season is currently listed in the MU student directory as a junior studying communication. He previously said he has applied to another college.
