A month after being indicted on rape charges and surrendering his passport while awaiting trial, former Maryland basketball player Damonte Dodd has had his passport reinstated to allow him to play overseas.
Polish team GTK Gliwice announced it signed Dodd on Aug. 3. At a hearing Monday, the court allowed Dodd to travel outside the country to play basketball, court records show. Dodd’s Instagram showed he traveled to Europe on Friday.
“It’s highly unusual for someone who was released in the state of Maryland on their own recognizance to be able to leave [even] the D.C. area,” said Prince George’s County state’s attorney spokesperson Gina Ford. “Let alone leave the country.”
Dodd’s attorney, Thomas Mooney, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Dodd was indicted in July on charges stemming from the early morning of Nov. 1, when he had sex with a woman in a College Park apartment after drinking at Terrapin’s Turf the previous night, according to a press release from the state’s attorney’s office.
Five days later, the woman told police Dodd had raped her, according to the release. Dodd told police the sex was consensual, the release said.
Dodd is charged with second-degree rape and assault, along with other related charges. At a preliminary hearing July 12, the court ordered Dodd was released on the grounds he stay away from College Park, not contact anyone involved with the case and surrender his passport.
The court revised those conditions Monday. A judge ruled that Dodd is to check in with Mooney on a weekly basis while he is overseas, assistant state’s attorney Melissa Hoppmeyer told NBC4 Washington.
The trial is still scheduled to begin November 7.
Ford objected to the court’s decision, saying “we treat each defendant, regardless of what they do for a living, the exact same way.”
Yet she stopped short of saying Dodd was receiving special treatment due to his relative fame.
“His attorney said he had to go to work. Who knows what it is,” Ford said. “Ultimately, we feel that he should’ve had to remain here until his trial and until its conclusion.”
