Suspended ASU linebacker Davon Durant’s girlfriend: ‘Davon would never touch me’
Mar 31, 2015, 11:04 PM | Updated: Apr 1, 2015, 1:42 pm
Kelsi Langley wants everyone to know that her boyfriend, suspended ASU football player Davon Durant, is innocent.
He did not hit her, she said. He did not put his arms around her neck.
“I’ve decided to come forward and set the record straight about everything that’s happened,” she said at a press conference Tuesday, with civil rights leader Rev. Jarrett Maupin alongside her. “While my original statement may have painted a different picture, I just wanted it to be known that it was said out of anger.”
Durant, a transfer from Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas, was suspended indefinitely on March 16 after he was arrested on allegations of domestic violence and aggravated assault, which stemmed from an incident between he and Langley on March 6 in Tempe.
“Everyone’s been in a relationship, everyone gets into arguments, and a lot of people say things that they don’t mean,” Langley added. “Granted, this was said on a very big scale with large consequences, but that’s all it was. Nothing happened.
“Davon would never touch me. There’s no way. He’s the kindest person I’ve ever met in my entire life. He couldn’t hurt a fly, and it was my anger that got the best of me. And I also believe that the media has blown everything out of proportion; they are trying to make him out to be this criminal or this thug that he’s not, because that is the furthest thing he is. As a female, I don’t like to feel like I’m being portrayed as this poor woman who is being victimized by this aggressive man, because that’s not the case at all.”
Langley said all this is about is setting the record straight and proving that an innocent man is innocent. She added she regrets the entire thing.
Durant, who has been rated as a five-star prospect by some recruiting services, was expected to come in this season and immediately help the Sun Devils’ defense. When news of the arrest and subsequent suspension came out, ASU coach Todd Graham said they would let the legal and school processes carry themselves out, but that everyone on his team knows that if they get arrested, they’re getting suspended — likely for an indefinite amount of time depending on where investigations lead.
Tuesday, Langley said people who said they witnessed the attack were wrong in what they thought they saw. Admitting they were probably just trying to help, Langley said the only thing that happened that night was a verbal argument that was followed by her making a scene outside her apartment complex in order to create some “social humility” for Durant.
When asked if Durant has apologized for his role in the argument, Langley said he has, but that it wasn’t his wrong to apologize for.
“It was mine, and I’ve made that very clear,” she said.
Where things will go from here is a bit unclear. As long as the charges against Durant are still out there, he is not likely to be back with the football team. Maupin said Arizona State University has moved, or is moving toward an expulsion for Durant.
“He has filed an appeal, Ms. Langley has also filed an appeal,” he said. “I think we are moving too fast in this situation. Clearly, an argument did happen. Clearly, it was blown out of proportion — according to the two people who were involved.
“And clearly, it is not right for the university to expel or seek to expel this young man from the athletic field and from the classroom. That’s really an injustice, and that’s one of the reasons we are standing here today.”
