Iowa State Basketball's Bubu Palo and Another Man Charged with Sex Abuse: 2012 in Review

Editor's Note: As the year winds down, Ames Patch is looking back at some of the stories that made you talk, cry, laugh or just scratch your head.

This story originally ran September 7, 2012

AMES, IA — Iowa State basketball player and Ames High School graduate Bubu Palo and another Ames man turned themselves in to authorities on felony sex abuse charges Friday morning.

Palo, 21, of Walton Drive, and Spencer Cruise, 21, of Ashmore Drive, were both being held in Story County Jail on $25,000 bond about 10:30 a.m. Friday. Palo was released with supervision before noon Friday, but Cruise, who has been convicted of both disarming and assaulting a peace officer, was released after posting bond.

Cruise and Palo are accused of offering an adult woman a ride home early May 18. Instead of taking her home, complaints said, that they took her to an Oakland Drive home owned by Cruise's family and asked her to come in. She agreed and then they both committed sex acts by force, complaints said.

The complaints state that both men "did commit a sex act by force or against the will of another person, and was aided and abetted by another person during the commission of the sex act."

Ames Police Sgt. Rory Echer said that the woman reported the assault that same morning. Search warrants were obtained to collect DNA evidence. The Division of Criminal Investigations lab returned DNA results last week, Echer said.

Both men worked out an agreement with the Story County Attorney's office to turn themselves in on second-degree sex abuse charges this morning.

Cruise was currently on probation for a 2009 incident with an Ames police officer, according to an article in the Ames Tribune. 

An officer visited Cruise's home on reports of a loud party. Cruise assaulted the officer, fought with him over a Taser and shocked the officer in the hand. Cruise also tried to choke the officer and broke his radio earpiece, the article said.

Second-degree sex abuse is a class B felony punishable by 25 years in prison. A story published in the Des Moines Register said that Palo has been suspended from the team.

Since this story ran, Palo continues to be listed on the roster as a redshirt. Both Cruise and Palo have agreed to be co-defendants in the case and waived their rights to a speedy trial, according to court records.