Barak Steelmon, mugshot by Madison County Detention Center, and is a public record, via Busted!
There is no publicly available information on what course of study Barak Steelmon was pursuing at the University of Kentucky, but I suspect that if he was attempting to become a rocket scientist or brain surgeon, if the allegations against him are true, he might need to consider a less intellectually demanding field. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:
Man accused of sexual abuse at a UK dorm, set to make first court appearance
By Christopher Leach and Jesse Fraga | Columbus Day, October 12, 2026 | 12:38 PM EDT | Updated: 3:23 PM EDT
A man has been accused of sexually abusing a woman in a University of Kentucky dorm hall earlier this year, according to court documents.
Barak Steelmon, 21, of Richmond, is charged with first-degree sexual abuse. Court documents say he was arrested Aug. 31, more than eight months after the alleged incident occurred.
The incident took place at Lewis Hall on UK’s campus. Court documents say Steelmon sexually abused a woman while she was asleep in her bed.
The woman reported the incident to UK police shortly after it happened. Investigators spoke with Steelmon sometime later, and he admitted to knowing that he did not have consent for sexual contact, court documents say.
Steelmon also said the woman “explicitly verbally expressed a lack of consent to engaging in sexual contact” after an encounter earlier that evening, court documents say.
Mr Steelmon is, of course, legally innocent until proven guilty, though, if the statements documented in the court records occurred after he had been informed of his Miranda rights, he’s not just toast, but toast which has fallen on the floor, buttered side down.
Under KRS §510.110, sexual abuse in the first degree is a Class D felony; under KRS §532.020, the penalty for a Class D felony is one to a maximum of five years in the state penitentiary.
I have to admit it: I simply cannot comprehend this. Assuming Mr Stelmon’s statements are accurately reported in the court records, what the heck was he thinking? Breaking into the victim’s dorm room while she was asleep? Expecting her to change her mind after she had previously rejected him? Perhaps alcohol or drugs were involved, something not reported in the newspaper, but any sane and even halfway sober college student had to have known that this was a prescription for personal disaster. This is not a Cornell rape case, in which consent was at least originally given for part of the alleged ‘activities’, and in which the feminist ‘activists’ have joined in without any serious thoughts, but an unambiguous charge that could transfer the alleged attacker from UK to the University of LaGrange.
If the accused gets a decent lawyer, he might seek some sort of reduced charge plea bargain, but at least with the reported evidence, he wouldn’t have much with which to bargain. A more probable outcome would be a guilty plea for a sentence on the lower end of the range.
Mr Steelmon’s mugshot shows him to be 6’4″ or 6’5″ tall, which is something he might need to be in prison, but my guess is that, if convicted, he will still not do well behind bars.