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Prosecutors have not agreed to recommend a reduction in bail for former Brighton High and University of Southern California linebacker Osa Chad Masina, who is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman after a July house party in Cottonwood Heights.
Defense attorney Greg Skordas had hoped to address the issue for Masina, who bonded out on $250,000 bail the same day he was charged and arrested in September, at a hearing Friday in 3rd District Court.
"Part of the reason we're hoping to address bail is the significant bail amount has caused his family and supporters to tie up a great deal of their funds," Skordas told reporters outside the courtroom. "… Bail is all about whether or not he's a flight risk, or a risk not to appear in court. He's here, he's got nowhere to go. He doesn't have a passport. He's not a student in California anymore. So we don't see his flight … being an issue."
But after negotiations with prosecutors fell apart, Masina's case will instead move forward to a Nov. 29 preliminary hearing, where the state will present its case against the 19-year-old and a judge will decide if the evidence is sufficient to warrant a trial.
"We're far apart on everything," Skordas said. "This is one of those unfortunate cases that's probably going to go to trial."
Masina faces three first-degree felony charges of rape and forcible sodomy stemming from allegations from a woman who says the football player brutally assaulted her in the early morning hours of July 26, while she was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.
Masina has not yet entered a formal plea to the three counts — one of rape and two of forcible sodomy. Each carries a possible punishment of five years to life in prison.
According to court documents, the alleged assault resulted in damage to the woman's teeth and left her huddled in fear in the yard of a neighbor's Cottonwood Heights home, bleeding and wearing only a bra and a blanket.
Masina is also being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department because the woman said Masina had assaulted her in California about two weeks prior to the Utah assault.
No charges have been filed in connection with those California allegations, and Skordas said the claims figure to play a part in Masina's defense in Utah.
"I guess as you might expect, if the couple got together in California and they got together in Utah, it might have something to do with the fact that she wanted to, that there was some consent involved, that they had chosen to get together twice," the attorney said Friday.
In a search warrant filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, however, the woman told investigators she had been under the influence of marijuana, alcohol and Xanax and "does not even recall having sex with Osa while she was in California." The woman told police that after the July incident, an ex-boyfriend told her that Masina had sent him videos and pictures, via Snapchat, of him and the woman having sex.
Last month, Skordas said he believed the videos would help with Masina's defense and that he believed no charges would be filed. The LAPD's investigation, however, remains active.
Masina had just begun his sophomore year at USC when LAPD served its search warrant. The Utah man has since been suspended from the football team and the school. A Title IX complaint has also filed against Masina, which he has appealed.
Twitter: @aaronfalk