Kansas prep refutes sex story

Manhattan paper: Hawkeyes lured Winfield recruit

? A deputy state attorney general will investigate a University of Iowa football prospect’s sexual liaison with a student during a campus visit last fall, university President David Skorton announced Monday.

Douglas Marek will look into reports by a Kansas newspaper that high school quarterback Nick Patton had sex with a student he met on campus, and whether football players or team officials had anything to do with the encounter.

Skorton announced he would appoint an independent investigator Friday, the day the Manhattan Mercury reported the story based on an interview with Patton. The quarterback since has denied university officials had anything to do with his encounter with the woman.

“Although the young man involved in this incident has told another newspaper that the Manhattan Mercury story was incorrect, and that no one from the University of Iowa was involved in arranging this relationship, I believe that we should follow through with an investigation,” Skorton said in a statement.

Patton was quoted Monday by the Des Moines Register as saying he met the woman at a bar in downtown Iowa City and later had consensual sex with her in his hotel room, which was paid for as part of his recruiting visit.

Last week, Patton told the Mercury he thought the woman had been assigned to him and that their sexual encounter occurred at the residence of his host, Iowa linebacker Abdul Hodge.

“It made it seem like I was there and Abdul brought that girl in and we started doing stuff,” Patton told the Register. “It wasn’t like that. He didn’t introduce me. I walked up to the girl and met her myself.”

The Register interviewed Patton on Sunday at the home he shares with his grandparents in Winfield. Patton, a quarterback, signed with Kansas State.

Mark Janssen, The Mercury’s sports editor, told the Register that Patton was interviewed three times — twice on tape — and he recounted the same version of events each time.

“I firmly stand by every word,” said Janssen, who co-wrote the story with sports writer Joshua Kinder.

Ned Seaton, general manager of the Mercury, said Monday he expected the investigation to show the newspaper’s reporting was accurate.

“Clearly, we stand behind the story and we stand behind Mark Janssen,” Seaton said. “He’s been the sports editor here for 20 years and he gets stuff right.”

Patton told the Register he and the woman had a relationship that lasted two or three months and she visited him several times in Winfield, bringing him a Hawkeye T-shirt and blanket at his request.

Asked if he was positive the woman was not connected with the Iowa athletic department, Patton told the Register, “I’m not positive. I’m just going by what she told me.”