from www.sportsillustrated.cnn.com – IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A former University of Iowa football player was convicted Thursday of misdemeanor assault in a case involving a 2007 sexual encounter with a female athlete who testified she passed out in a vacant dorm room and didn’t consent.

Cedric Everson, 21, was convicted of the least serious charge after originally facing up to 25 years in prison. Now, he faces no more than 30 days in jail when he is sentenced Feb. 25.

Everson’s family, including his mother, mother-in-law, aunt and sister, praised jurors for allowing Everson to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. They said Everson had married and had a 1-year-old daughter and was living in Atlanta.

“I’m relieved. I’m looking forward to going home to my wife and my daughter. Just trying to get out of here,” Everson told The Associated Press.

The jury of 8 men and 4 women declined to convict Everson of third-degree sexual abuse, a felony that carried up to 10 years in prison. They also did not convict him of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, which carried up to 5 years behind bars.

Judge Paul Miller threw out a second-degree sexual abuse charge Tuesday, saying there was no evidence a teammate had “aided and abetted” Everson, an element required under Iowa’s gang rape law. A conviction on that charge would have carried up to 25 years in prison.

Prosecutors contended during a weeklong trial that Everson assaulted the woman in October 2007 while she was passed out after one of Everson’s teammates, Abe Satterfield, had assaulted her.

Satterfield pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge last year but testified last week the sex was consensual. He said Everson tapped him on the shoulder in the middle of the night and he got out of bed, but he didn’t know what happened later between Everson and the woman.

Everson did not testify in his own defense. His defense attorney, Leon Spies, argued the woman had been drinking and does not remember having consensual sex with his client.

“The jury looked at the whole picture and the complexity of human emotion and lack of experience of some young people,” Spies told reporters. “Nobody is a winner in this case, but at least somebody gets to go home.”
Spies said the verdict could clear the way for Everson to resume playing college football. He said his client had an offer to play for an unidentified college and he expected an announcement soon.

Everson’s mother, Rosalyn Everson, said she was “so relieved” that a case that had dragged on for more than three years was finally over. She said she agreed with jurors’ decision to find him guilty of assault.

“I’m a woman myself, so I understand,” she said.

The woman testified that she ended up in the room with Satterfield after a night of drinking, and he held her down and had intercourse with her even though she told him to stop. She said she woke up the next morning naked and covered in blood and didn’t find out that Everson had allegedly assaulted her while she was asleep for several weeks.

Prosecutor Anne Lahey said Everson snuck in the room and traded places with Satterfield and had intercourse with the woman while she slept. In the following days, Everson bragged to his teammates that he and Satterfield had sex with the same woman, while falsely denying involvement to football Coach Kirk Ferentz, she said.

Ferentz suspended Everson and Satterfield from the team days after the assault, and they later transferred to other schools.

Jurors left the courthouse without commenting, and prosecutors were not immediately available.