So I Guess We Should Talk About the Whole Lloyd Irvin Rape Thing?

Ugh. We here at CagePotato have been debating for days now whether or not we should cover the recent, horrific story involving two Lloyd Irvin Martial Arts School students, which has in turn brought to light the former and similarly shocking allegations aimed at Irvin himself. On one hand, we like to keep things light and humorous around here, and would prefer to wait until all of the evidence has surfaced. On the other hand, sweeping a story as heinous as this under the rug would be a cop out even by our standards. At the end of the day, we are supposed to report on all things MMA, no matter how positive or negative a light they shine on the sport, so here we go.

You might have heard that recently, two well known students of the Lloyd Irvin Martial Arts School – Matthew Maldonado and Nicholas Schultz — were accused of raping a female student of the gym on New Year’s Eve. Apparently, Shultz and Maldonado ran into the victim at a club in Washington D.C. and offered to drive her home, as she was too drunk to drive. What follows are the sickening details regarding what actually happened:

But the men took her to the St. Matthew’s Center parking garage instead, police explained, where surveillance cameras captured Maldanado raping the woman and Shultz joining.

After Maldanado left, police said, the tape shows Schultz raping her repeatedly. She told police he said at one point, “I am sorry. I am a sick bastard.”

Detectives said the woman claimed she had been raped, but it wasn’t until they saw the tape, that the extent of the allegations emerged.

They wrote of the alleged attack “She fell backwards…striking her head against the wall…later struck her head again…and noted she collapsed to the ground…several times…he head again hitting the ground.”

And according to reports, the recent allegations involving Irvin’s students has unearthed a story dating back to 1989 in which a Lloyd E. Irvin Jr. was involved in the gang rape of a 17 year-old woman. Via The Daily Press:

The fates of two men charged in the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old Hampton University student last fall will not be determined until at least Monday.

Circuit Judge Robert W. Curran dismissed a jury of six men and six women at 7 p.m. Friday after they deliberated about four hours on whether Terrence C. Gatling, 21, and Lloyd E. Irvin Jr., 20, are guilty of rape.

Gatling, who was a junior at HU at the time of the incident, and Irvin, who was a junior at Bowie State University in Maryland, are charged with raping an HU student who had been on campus about six weeks. Gatling also is charged with sodomy.

Irvin said that having sex with a “freak” was not one of his best ideas of fun, but he did not oppose it. 

According to a follow up article by the same periodical, the only reason Irvin wasn’t convicted was due to the fact the he was able to convince the jury that he was impotent when it was his turn to perform the act. However, two other men also involved in the gang rape were convicted in 1991.

Irvin has refused to comment on whether or not he was the Lloyd E. Irvin involved in the incident, but being that he was born in 1969 (making him 20 at the time of the incident) and attended Bowie State University seems to indicate that he is the same Lloyd Irvin as the one involved in the 1989 case. Due to the fact that the Newport Police Department and Courthouse do not have records of court cases dating back more than ten years, none of this can be confirmed.

However, in an effort to control the Google search results surrounding both his case and that of his students, Irvin recently purchased the website LloydIrvinRape.com and has since deleted all comments related to the incident from his Facebook page. It’s a standard maneuver to pull given the current circumstances, but it doesn’t exactly suggest that Irvin wasn’t involved in the 1989 case.

In fact, the only statement Irvin has made since the incident was brought to light came on his Facebook page:

There has been a horrible alleged incident that occurred that involved 3 people on my comp team. This is a legal matter that I am not authorized to speak on and has nothing to do with me personally. However, for you idiotic people who come on my page to attack me for the actions of two grown men, let me make something very clear to you:

I don’t care if you hate me, my marketing, my team or anything I do, but let’s not lose sight of the REAL issue here. A young lady was allegedly harmed. Someone who is a friend, a student of mine and who knows she has my full support during this difficult time.

This is not a laughing matter or a time to try and turn your personal dislike for me or my team into an irrelevant story.The focus should be on the well-being of this young lady. Do not take away from the severity of these charges by trying to make it about me. This could be any one of our mother’s, sisters or daughters and I take this very seriously

For the record I was just with this young lady this morning and she is looking forward to working towards her goal of becoming a bjj world champion. Anyone that attempts to come on my page and attack me during this serious time is beyond sick!

Words fail to describe how horrific the allegations surrounding both Irvin and that of his students truly are, but considering that both Shultz and Maldonado were caught by security cameras performing the alleged act, we can assume for the time being that at least some of the guilty parties will be brought to justice.

We will have more on this story as it develops.

-J. Jones