MLS Players Gori and Diaz Arce Facing Sexual Assault Charges

Two players for defending Major League Soccer champion Washington D.C. United have been charged with sexually assaulting a 24-year-old woman in a Columbus, Ohio, hotel, police said Monday.

Defender Mario Gori, 24, of Argentina, was charged with rape and forward Raul Diaz Arce, 27, of El Salvador, was charged with complicity to rape, according to a police statement.

Both appeared in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Monday and each was being held in jail on $500,000 bond.

A preliminary hearing has been set for the two on Aug. 29. If convicted, both men could receive a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison or $20,000 fines or both, according to a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

J. Elliott Van Dyne, the players’ lawyer who represented them at their arraignment, told the Washington Post: “They are somewhat frightened, somewhat confused, and they happen to be innocent.”

Diaz Arce, the league’s second-leading goal scorer in 1996, is tied for the lead this season and is a key member of the El Salvador national team trying to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France.