More women come forward with complaints about Temple football coach

More women have come forward with allegations of misconduct against a Temple University assistant football coach, Philadelphia police and a local lawyer representing alleged victims said Monday.

The Philadelphia Police Department said three complaints have been filed against Antoine Smith, assistant head coach and defensive line coach for the Owls. The first complaint was filed in April 2022, said police spokesperson Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, and two more complainants came forward over the weekend after an anonymous report about Smith was posted on a popular Instagram page.

Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The allegations were first shared on Friday by WatchOutPhilly, an Instagram account dedicated to safety concerns of women in Philadelphia. In the post, a woman described meeting Smith last year through the popular dog-walking app Rover. While staying at Smith’s Philadelphia home for a weekend to care for his dog, the woman, who did not identify herself, said she found hidden cameras, including in the bedroom and bathroom where she slept and showered.

The post said Smith denied having any hidden cameras.

The woman filed a report with Philadelphia police last April, police said. Smith was not charged with any crimes at the time.

After the woman’s account was posted online, two more people filed complaints with police over the weekend, Reilly said. Reilly declined to share any specifics on the allegations because Smith has not been charged with any crimes, but said the investigation is open and ongoing.

“The nature of the investigations, coupled with the fact that the individual in question has not been charged, preclude the PPD from sharing any additional information as it relates to these cases,” Reilly said in an email.

Attorney Amanda Jonas Lorentson of McEldrew Purtell, said the firm is representing nearly a dozen women, including the three who filed police reports. The women’s allegations, she said, include “sexual assault, misconduct, and invasion of privacy that took place in Philadelphia.”

Lorentson said the woman who was posted on WatchOutPhilly reached out to her for representation on Friday, and additional victims later came forward. She said the firm is investigating what it believes are “credible allegations” stemming back to Smith’s time at Colorado State University, where he coached for about two years before joining the Owls in January 2022.

Lorentson declined to share details of the sexual assault allegation, which she said had not been reported to police. But she said her firm is “fully cooperating with authorities in their investigation, and that includes facilitating conversations with victims and police where necessary.”

Temple spokesperson Deirdre Childress Hopkins said in an email that the university “is aware of additional complaints made in recent days” and is “investigating these allegations in accordance with university policy.”

Hopkins asked people with information to file a report with Temple.

She did not answer questions about whether the university was aware of the misconduct allegations when they were first reported to police last year.

According to Smith’s bio on the university website, he joined Temple in January 2022 and was named assistant head coach this year. He was the defensive line coach for Colorado State in the two years before that, and has coached football teams at Boston College, Texas State, and numerous other schools.