New details have emerged in the civil case of University of Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon and accusations that he punched a woman in the face at a restaurant near the school in 2014.
In a video interview with police three days after the incident at Pickleman's Gourmet Cafe in Norman, Mixon, who was with his attorneys and his mother during the interview, said he was not the aggressor and was simply reacting to being called a racial slur when things spiraled out of control, and he ended up striking then-OU student Amelia Molitor.
"The gay dude ... he called me something," Mixon said in the video. "He was like (slur). So then I was like, you got me messed up. And then I called him a (slur). And after that, the girl, she dropped her purse, that's when she came in my face, pushed me, and then my glasses came off, and then, like, I had, like, jumped at her, like, to watch out. And then she came in my face. I put my head down. And she swung on me."
Mixon said he was hit so hard, he thought it was a man that hit him.
"And after that, like, I was so shocked, because she hit me so hard. It felt like a dude hit me. And after that, like, my face went boom, my reaction was just right there."
Surveillance videos of the incident were released last Friday after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered they be released by the city. But Mixon's attorneys released the videos themselves to reportedly avoid the possibility that the city would release them just prior to January 2, when the Sooners play Auburn in the Sugar Bowl.
RELATED: Controversial video of Joe Mixon hitting a woman finally released
Meanwhile, after the July 25, 2014, incident the victim, Molitor, suffered fractured bones in her face and Mixon was suspended from the football team for a season and charged with a misdemeanor. Molitor, who's seen in the video striking Mixon first, was not charged.
Attorneys representing Mixon in the civil case say Mixon's testimony is consistent with what is seen on the video.
Kevin Finlay, who represented Mixon in the 2014 criminal case, lashed out District Attorney Greg Mashburn for allowing Molitor's attorneys access to the surveillance videos.
"I think it was done because she's politically connected," Finlay said. "It has always shocked me. I can't think of another case where that has occurred. He's clearly aiding them in a civil suit."
