Late Wednesday afternoon, Texas Tech Athletics announced that freshman defensive back Nigel Bethel II has been reinstated to the Red Raider Football team. The reinstatement comes one day after a Lubbock County Grand Jury declined to indict Bethel on an assault charge in connection with last month's altercation with Amber Battle at the Texas Tech Student Recreation Center.

“This is an unfortunate situation with a unique set of circumstances and there are no winners,” said Kirby Hocutt, Director of Athletics.  “Every decision related to this case has been the right one at that particular time based upon our principles, student-athlete code of conduct and team rules.  As I continued to work with Coach Kingsbury and Coach Whitaker, we looked at the totality of the situation and have arrived at this decision.  Two talented young people made a mistake, have shown remorse and learned some very valuable life lessons.”

Bethel will be suspended for the first three games of his first season playing with the Red Raiders.  Bethel's first season could be in either 2014 or 2015.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to come back to Texas Tech,” said Bethel.  “I take full responsibility for my actions and I would like to let everyone know that this won’t happen again.  It’s not who I am and I am sorry for the embarrassment this has caused.  I want to thank Amber Battle for accepting my apology and for coming forward to say that I deserved a second chance.  I would like to thank everyone at Texas Tech, including the coaches, for believing in me and giving me a second chance to show my ability and to receive an education from Texas Tech.”

Hocutt will further discuss the situation Thursday morning at 11:20a on Sportsline with Steve Dale.

Meanwhile, Battle will remain suspended from all of the Lady Raider Basketball games scheduled in the month on November. You can view a video from last month's incident by clicking this link.

At a press conference on Wednesday head coaches Kliff Kingsbury and Candi Whitaker stated the suspensions are fair as they amount to 25% of the regular season games for both players.

You can watch video of the press conference right here:

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