Earlier tonight we discussed a bit of disturbing news about Brandon Saling, a lightweight who fought on the Showtime Extreme undercard at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey. Initially the story was that Saling had a rather ugly Neo-Nazi related tattoo. The story took a bit a bit of a turn when it was pointed out that Saling was also a registered sex offender.
A little bit of digging on the internet turned up some of the details. It appears that this all stems from an issue in October of 2004. First, the indictment info via The Daily Jeffersonian:
Brandon C. Saling, 18, of 24536 Route 146, Summerfield was indicted on one count of engaging in unlawful sexual conduct, a first-degree felony. Saling was indicted in connection with an alleged rape of a person under 13 on Oct. 8
So rape of a person under the age of thirteen. The Daily Jeffersonian also had details back when the charges were first filed:
Two Noble County men are facing first-degree felony rape charges following an investigation by the Noble County Sheriff’s Office into the weekend disappearance of a 12-year-old girl and her 13-year-old sister. According to Noble County Sheriff Landon T. Smith, the girls parents had allowed them to go to an all-night birthday party at a friend’s house in Monroe County last Friday. According to reports, the girls left the party with the suspects. Brandon C. Saling, 18, Summerfield, and James T. Allen, 18, Sarahsville were each charged with rape of a person under 13 years old, a first-degree felony.
To make matters worse, Saling also picked up a domestic violence charge in 2008 and had to serve another 40 days in jail.
The combination of Neo-Nazi tattoos, domestic violence and rape of a child under the age of 13 should have been enough to have raised some red flags for Strikeforce and Showtime. That they didn’t catch any of this, which took no more than a few Google searches, is pretty inexcusable.
Scott Coker did say they were “unaware” of Saling’s background and suggested that the commission would be launching an investigation on Monday. The only way an investigation makes sense is if he didn’t disclose his history. But, having hired for large and small businesses in the past, it’s pretty standard practice to also just run people’s names through Google to see if anything pops up.
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