Former Syracuse football player Amir Ealey pleads guilty to rape charge as part of plea deal

Amir Ealey, the former Syracuse football defensive end, pleaded guilty Friday to a third-degree rape charge as prosecutors and Ealey’s defense team reached a plea agreement that will allow him to avoid serving time in prison.

Ealey, who had been charged with first- and third-degree rape for incidents occurring in Ernie Davis Hall in 2015, pleaded guilty to the third-degree charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping the first-degree charge.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended that Ealey receive a sentence of 10 years of probation but avoid time in prison. If Ealey had been convicted of the first-degree charge by a jury, he would have faced up to 25 years in prison.

Assistant prosecutor Maureen Barry said during Friday’s hearing that the prosecution didn’t believe there was enough physical evidence to convict Ealey of the first-degree charge at a jury trial. In New York state, a person is guilty of first-degree rape when he or she engages in sexual intercourse by “forcible compulsion,” using either physical force or a threat to compel the victim. Barry said there was a lack of physical evidence supporting that Ealey used forcible compulsion.

Ealey appeared alongside his defense attorney, Charles Keller, in front of Judge Gordon Cuffy on Friday as he entered his plea. The former SU football player was arrested in March 2016 and charged with two counts of rape in the third degree for two incidents that occurred in July 2015. One of those charges was upgraded in September 2016 to a first-degree rape charge.

Barry said prosecutors discussed the plea agreement with the two victims prior to Friday’s hearing.

“They feel strongly that justice has been served,” Barry said.

Cuffy said Friday that the court would accept the prosecution’s recommended sentencing as long as Ealey cooperates with his probation, doesn’t get into any further trouble before the sentencing and appears for the sentencing.

Ealey, who lives in Philadelphia, will be sentenced for the third-degree conviction on Jan. 10 of next year.

Ealey, 20, played in seven games for SU as a freshman in 2015. He was dismissed from SU’s football team in February 2016 after being suspended indefinitely the previous November in an unrelated incident.