Police have "suspended" the investigation into NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines' claims that she was assaulted and held for ransom by pro-transgender protesters, Fox News reported. The San Francisco State University Police Department deemed the accusations "unfounded."
In April 2023, Gaines, the director of the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute, spoke at the university about her experience as a swimmer competing against Lia Thomas. Gaines tied for fifth place with the male gender-confused athlete during the national championship.
At the conclusion of her speech, Gaines was ambushed by a group of protesters at the podium and assaulted. The shut off the lights in the room and attempted to bar her from leaving.
Law enforcement escorted her to another room to shield her from the attacks. However, Gaines claims that she was struck several times even as the police were guarding her and was trapped by the mob.
During her "Gaines for Girls" podcast on Outkick, Gaines shared her frustration with the way the school was treating the investigation. "Can you please let me know if you have completed your investigation?" she wrote in an email last month to the San Francisco State University Police Department.
"I wondered if you can share with me any conclusions you have reached regarding your investigation and whether any charges will be filed against the individuals who sought to threaten, intimidate and harm me? Is there a timetable concerning this matter?" Gaines wrote.
"Is there any additional information you need from me?" she added. Unfortunately, the reply from the officer was demoralizing.
"After a thorough investigation, the alleged charges in this case are unfounded and have been suspended pending further lead," the Feb. 2 reply from the officer said. The officer further claimed that requests in June and July "for a case follow-up" from Gaines "went unanswered."
The officer added that Gaines should "do so, and the case may be further investigated." However, Gaines said she had already spent "multiple hours" with the police recounting her story but was being asked to do it all over again.
Gaines recalled the frightening and chaotic ordeal that unfolded on that day. "They were everything under the sun. Women, men, men dressed as women, women dressed as men — and everything in between, which is why it was so disorienting," Gaines said.
"These people turned the lights off, flickered the lights for a bit, which I imagine was done entirely strategically. I was confused and trying to make sense of what was happening," Gaines said.
A plainclothes female police officer, who would later become the contact she emailed about the investigation, escorted her to a back room where she spent more than four hours trapped inside as the angry mob negotiated for a ransom of $10 each to let her go. Eventually, police stepped in and helped liberate Gaines.
"This just encourages what happened to me to happen to other people because the precedent has now been set. We don’t see this happening to liberal speakers or to anyone with a dissenting viewpoint to that of my own," Gaines pointed out.
The radical transgender mob can be vicious, and Gaines is correct that they're now also emboldened by the university's inaction. It is unconscionable that people involved who allegedly attacked, harassed, and held Gaines for ransom may face no charges.
