UPDATE: Deputy DA acknowledges Franklin talked to alleged rape victim

Published Apr. 30, 2014 1:00 p.m. ET

foxsports

UPDATE: Deputy DA Tom Thurman acknowledged that James Franklin talked to an alleged rape victim after she accused four of his former Vanderbilt football players of the crime.

"He did," Thurman told the Philadelphia Enquirer. "I think he and his wife called and said they were praying for her and thinking about her. It was probably a pretty nice thing to do, and it gets thrown up like this...

"Obviously, it wasn't for any purpose of covering up or anything like that," he added, and said he understood that Franklin personally knew the young woman from her working in the football office. "It was showing support, which was a nice thing to do. That's the only contact I know about."

In a 24-page filing Tuesday by the defense attorneys for a former Vanderbilt football player charged with raping a woman in a campus dorm last June, former Commodores and current Penn State head coach James Franklin is accused of contacting the alleged victim shortly after the incident occurred.

The filing asks for the case to be dropped due to prosecutors allegedly destroying or not preserving evidence before it brings forward new allegations that Franklin and former director of performance enhancement Dwight Galt reached out to the accuser during a medical examination four days after the alleged rape occurred.

According to records, attorneys stated that Franklin and Galt contacted the alleged victim to explain "that they cared about her because she assisted them with recruiting."

The filing then went on to say, "Coach Franklin called her in for a private meeting and told her he wanted her to get fifteen pretty girls together and form a team to assist with the recruiting even though he knew it was against the rules.

"He added that all the other colleges did it."

Franklin issued a statement through Penn State denying the allegations.

"The allegations that I did something wrong are simply not true," the statement read. "I have cooperated fully with the authorities in this matter but, out of respect for the legal process, I am not able to comment further."

Franklin is scheduled to meet with the media on Thursday.