A distinguished lawyer and former basketball star honored by Obama for campaigning to cease violence in opposition to girls on faculty campuses has been charged for allegedly stalking and beating his girlfriend – then stopping her from reporting him.
Cody McDavis, who performed at basketball on the College of Northern Colorado earlier than learning regulation at UCLA and changing into an affiliate at Los Angeles agency Vedder Worth, was even profiled in Sports activities Illustrated for his efforts to have the NCAA ban college students with a historical past of violence from enjoying sports activities.
However on July 20, McDavis was charged with six felony and three misdemeanor counts accusing him of endeavor a year-long marketing campaign of violence and intimidation in opposition to his girlfriend between July 2025 and June 2026, in line with a grievance filed within the Los Angeles County Superior Court docket.
Prosecutors allege the 32-year-old “willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly” adopted and harassed his girlfriend, leaving her in fearing for the protection of herself and her rapid household.
The allegations are a shocking distinction with McDavis’ years of public advocacy in opposition to sexual and gender-based violence.
The six-foot eight lawyer obtained quite a few accolades for his sexual-violence-prevention work, together with a White Home Champion of Change award beneath former President Barack Obama for his function within the “It’s On Us” marketing campaign.
Launched by the Obama-Biden administration in 2014, the initiative sought to fight sexual assault on faculty campuses.
McDavis was additionally named a Solidarity Honoree on the 2019 Voices of Solidarity occasion, which acknowledges males who stand in opposition to gender-based violence and function allies to survivors.
“The ladies in right here who’re doing this unimaginable work are advised and advised and advised we wish to hear your voice, however whenever you begin speaking, you get shoved down,” McDavis stated throughout his acceptance speech.
“That makes me sick, I can’t stand that.”
One of many girls within the viewers was Brenda Tracy—a rape survivor and advocate—who McDavis credited for spurring his dedication to sexual violence consciousness.
“You’re a survivor, and what you say issues and we needs to be listening,” McDavis stated about Tracy throughout his speech.
The 2 labored collectively to develop the “Tracy Rule,” a coverage supposed to bar faculty athletes convicted of or discovered accountable for severe sexual or violent misconduct from competing.
McDavis pushed the NCAA Energy 5 conferences to assist the ban on student-athletes with a historical past of violence by beginning a petition that garnered greater than 280,000 signatures in 2019.
“My identify is Cody McDavis. I’m a former Division I student-athlete and the prevalence of sexual violence in faculty athletics makes me sick. That’s why I’m calling on the Energy 5 Convention Commissioners — essentially the most influential conferences within the NCAA — to right away ban student-athletes with a historical past of violence,” McDavis wrote within the Change.org petition.
Whereas the NCAA has not adopted the rule, particular person colleges have voluntarily enforced it.
McDavis was even featured in a Sports activities Illustrated article titled “Cody McDavis Combating to See Change within the NCAA Sexual Assault Coverage” in 2019 after the marketing campaign gained traction.
The previous division one basketball participant has retained distinguished protection lawyer Shawn Holley, who was a member of O.J. Simpson’s protection workforce, and has represented celebrities together with Kanye West, Justin Bieber and Lindsay Lohan.
The Submit reached out to Holley and Vedder Worth for remark however neither responded.
The fees in opposition to McDavis embody three felony counts of inflicting corporal damage on his girlfriend, two for stalking and one for trying to cease her from pursing prosecution.
He additionally faces three misdemeanor counts of violating a protecting order, in line with the grievance.
McDavis is scheduled to be arraigned on September 2, and really useful bail be set at $550,000.
