Former Rockville Standout Football Player Reinstated at University of New Mexico

The player was reinstated after the local district attorney's office declined to refile rape, kidnapping charges

August 14, 2014 10:20 a.m.

A former Rockville High School running back was reinstated to the University of New Mexico football team on Wednesday after a New Mexico district attorney’s office declined to refile sexual assault charges against him and two other men.

Crusoe Gongbay was suspended from the UNM team after being arrested in April on rape and kidnapping charges along with SaQwan Edwards and Ryan Ruff. The charges were dropped in June, but the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office could have refiled them, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

The district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that the charges would not be refiled, leading to the reinstatements of Gongbay and Edwards to the football team. Ruff is not a member of the team.

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Gongbay, who played four years of varsity football at Rockville High before graduating in 2010, is among Maryland’s top-10 all-time high school rushing leaders with more than 5,000 yards gained. In his senior year at Rockville High he was a first-team Washington Post All-Metro selection and was named to the Maryland All-State Team.

Gongbay, Ruff and Edwards were arrested after a female UNM student told police she was raped by the three in a blue BMW. After the charges were dropped, a defense attorney showed explicit cellphone videos to reporters from the night in question, which the attorney claimed exonerated the men, according to krqe.com.

After Gongbay was reinstated, he tweeted, “Ya boy is back. They can’t stop Gods work. Gota make up for lost time but it’s still money season.”

Gongbay netted a career-high 592 rushing yards with six touchdowns, primarily as a backup, during his 2013 junior season at New Mexico.

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