Former Air Force Academy cadet and linebacker Jamil Cooks — who was convicted of abusive sexual contact in a court martial and kicked out of the military in April 2013 — has resurfaced on a civilian university’s football team, according to an ABC News report.
Cooks is now enrolled at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, and plays on the school’s Division I football team, ABC reported Tuesday. ABC said Cooks is appealing his conviction, which requires him to register as a sex offender.
The court-martial panel acquitted Cooks of forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual assault.
Cooks’ continued presence on a college football team, after his conviction, is proving controversial. ABC quotes critics such as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and current Air Force Academy Superintendent Michelle Johnson, who called the fact that he is still playing football “disappointing.”