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Suspended USC football player facing rape, sodomy charges appears in Utah court

Posted at 1:58 PM, Sep 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-30 19:43:28-04

SALT LAKE CITY — A University of Southern California football player made his first court appearance Friday morning after he was charged with rape and forcible sodomy.

Osa Masina faces one count of rape and two counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies, after he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Cottonwood Heights home on the morning of July 26.

In Masina's brief court appearance Friday, he waived a formal reading of the charges. A judge then scheduled Masina's next court appearance for October 14.

Masina is accused of committing similar crimes involving the same woman in California. In a Los Angeles County affidavit, the woman stated she found out that Masina recorded videos and took pictures of them having sex without her knowledge, then sent them to her ex-boyfriend via Snapchat. Greg Skordas, Masina's defense attorney, addressed that allegation Friday.

"I think that there's been a lot of talk about Snapchats or cellphone videos or things like that, that would make it appear that those are problems for us. I don't think that those exist and, when the truth comes out about that, we'll see what really happened," Skordas said.

Prosecutors requested and were granted a no contact order, which bars Masina from having any form of contact with the alleged victim.