Report: Bob Knight investigated by FBI for groping women during speech at spy agency headquarters

Per a documents obtained in a Washington Post report, Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight was investigated for the alleged groping and inappropriate touching of female employees of a federal spy agency during a 2015 speaking engagement.

According to the report, Knight was controversially invited to speak at the National Geospatial-Intellegence Agency on July 10, 2015. Before and after the speaking engagement, Knight’s “boorish” behavior led to the NGA notifying federal authorities and other governmental agencies — and the ensuing investigation.

Here’s from the WaPo’s report:

The women accused Knight of a range of boorish behavior: from touching them on the shoulder while commenting on the attractiveness of their legs, to hugging them too tightly around the chest, to hitting them on the buttocks, according to documents compiled by investigators and Washington Post interviews with three of the women.

The FBI spent over one year investigating the former Indiana coach, culminating in a 2016 trip to the coach’s Montana home. No charges were filed as a result of the investigation and Knight vehemently denied any allegations through his wife Karen and Indianapolis lawyer James Voyles to the Washington Post.

Still, the allegations are undoubtedly disturbing with Knight’s established track record of physical abuse and retrograde views toward women & sexual assault. Knight was famously dismissed from Indiana in 2000 for, among other items, physical abuse of players — like his famed assault of player Neil Reed at a 1997 practice. That same year, Knight made light of sexual assault in a interview with Connie Chung, stating that “if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” He was not publicly disciplined by Indiana.

We’ll update this post as more information surfaces.

In the meantime, don’t invite Bob Knight to your events.