Palo pleads not guilty to abuse charge

Published Sep. 20, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Suspended Iowa State basketball player Bubu Palo has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual abuse.

Palo was suspended Sept. 7 after being charged with sexually abusing a woman he was driving home earlier this year. Online court records say Palo's attorney, Matthew Boles, filed a written plea of not guilty on Tuesday.

Palo and another man, 21-year-old Spencer Cruise, of Ames, were charged with second-degree sexual abuse. The criminal complaint says the men offered to give a woman a ride home on May 18, but instead drove her to a home owned by Cruise's family and ''committed a sex act by force against the victim's will.''

Online records show that Cruise hasn't entered a plea.

Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg has suspended Palo, a reserve guard.