Thursday, August 25, 2016

The Challenge Theory II: Tonya Cooley's Sexual Assault Accusation

I just want to preface this post by saying that rape and sexual assault are terrible things. If you or anyone you know has been raped and sexually assaulted, please go or have them go to the authorities to start an investigation. With that said, this is probably the craziest incident that ever did or ever could have occurred in challenge history. In this case I am going to be an objective as possible here as to not slander any of the people involved because of how serious the matter is in the world today.

Tonya Cooley was probably the most complex cast member in challenge history. She originally began in 2002 on the cast of "Real World Chicago" where she was the clean-cut girl with a boyfriend and didn't do anything crazy or taboo. She often bickered with her cast members Theo and Aneesa because the both of them were more of party animals and more promiscuous than she was. She later made her challenge debut on the "Battle of the Sexes" in Jamaica. She also came into this challenge with a boyfriend and was most known for not wanting to take her clothes off during the mission called "Battle of the Opposite Sexes" because of her morals.

Tonya on Real World Chicago  (2002)                                                                         Tonya on Battle of the Sexes (2003)


Fast forward to about a year later, Tonya had ditched the boyfriend and the good girl persona, got breast implants and got drunk all the time. When she entered the "Battle of the Sexes 2", Tonya was sleeping with multiple guys (Ace and Theo Von in particular), putting rocks in her mouth, and was getting drunk all the time. 

Later that year, she starred in the "Inferno 2" where she admitted to sleeping with Mark Long, who was dating fellow cast member Robin Hibbard, which lead to Tonya being called a slut and a whore. This then lead to Tonya throwing her fellow Bad Asses' clothing into a swimming pool making Beth Stolarczyk eventually threaten to leave the show because she didn't want to be threatened. Tonya would then squabble all season with the "Mean Girls" (Tina, Rachel and Veronica) for unknown, dramatic reasons. Both Tonya and Rachel would later lament making Tonya's life miserable by pointing out that they were young and dumb, however, Tina never got over her distaste for Tonya. Tonya likely was falling into this lifestyle because as she explained, she didn't receive a lot of attention as a child because she would go from foster family to foster family as a child. 




Tonya with a rock in her mouth (top left)Tonya throwing Beth's clothes into the pool (bottom left)"Mean Girls" Tina, Rachel, Veronica (above)



It wasn't until a few years later in 2006 where Tonya became a full blown alcoholic where she was starring on "Fresh Meat" and a year before that on a reality show that also starred with Jonny Fairplay on the 2005 reality show called "Kill Reality". This was a show in which Tonya was known for getting drunk, partying, and grabbing Jonny Fairplay's balls. Tonya was also starting to take the challenge very seriously because she wasn't winning and that she thought that people weren't voting teams off based on merit. Tonya constantly bickered with other cast members including her partner Johnnie, who was never seen again after "Fresh Meat", likely because he wasn't very impressive. 

However, in 2007, Tonya finally won her first challenge on the Bad A** team in the "Inferno 3". She actually arrived onto the show with a husband back in the United States. With that said, she continued her mean streak of getting drunk, stripping and making out with the rookie cast member Davis Mallory. This would have been a big issue, but Davis was gay. It is not known if Tonya was having problems back home, but what was known was that Davis and Tonya were close friends and that Tonya immediately lamented making out with Davis in the hot tub by exclaiming "I HATE IT WHEN I HURT PEOPLE!"

It wasn't until "The Island" in 2008 and "The Ruins" in 2009 where Tonya literally became a complete train wreck. Honestly, in the beginning of her time, it was kind of funny that she would do bad things, but she was likely into her early 30's and later on it was no longer light hearted anymore. She was consistently drunk arguments with people, she was throwing up all the time, she slapped Veronica in the face (which stemmed from past hatred towards Veronica) and she just seemed like an unpleasant person to be around. She actually was doing well in "The Ruins", but her constant alcohol binges was starting to make her "Champions" teammates not respect her and made the audience think that Tonya's life might not be that great. After disqualifying herself by slapping Veronica in the face, we never saw Tonya on "The Challenge" again and we really didn't know 100% why. 

Tonya slapping Veronica on "The Ruins" (2009)


It wasn't until late 2011 where allegations came about a possible rape case on the set of "The Ruins" back in 2009. In this case, Tonya Cooley accused male teammates Evan Starkman and Kenny Santucci of penetrating her vagina with a toothbrush while the cameras were rolling without her consent, while she was intoxicated. This lead to Tonya settling out of court, which consequently caused Tonya, Evan and Kenny to be barred from any future season of "The Challenge". It also caused MTV to be more strict when it came to sexual assault. In the next season "Battle of the Exes" (2012) Vinny was kicked off the show because he tried to take Mandi's dress off at a night club without her permission. 

Now the real question is, who do I believe and why? First things first, this is a really loaded question with a lot to consider. You see, back in 2009, Evan and Kenny were basically the two main money makers for "The Challenge" (the others being John Devenanzio "Johnny Bananas" and Wes Bergman), not to mention Kenny, Evan and even Johnny would have likely been able to get away with anything and not get kicked off the show. I faintly remember many times where Evan, Kenny and Johnny pulled pranks on cast members, which included Johnny hitting Tonya in the face with baby powder, Kenny or Evan trying to take Katie's pants off, and Johnny throwing glue and feathers on a picture of Derrick's child. These guys were on top of the world and used it to their advantage to be horrible to people. 

Now again, this is my objective opinion and I am not attempting to slander people. With that said, I am going to first outline evidence for why they could have committed rape against Tonya. The first bit of evidence is the fact that apparently Wes and Katie claim that the assault or rape did happen. Not to mention, after it happened Katie admitted off the record that it was her toothbrush that was used during the assault. Later on, Kenny stopped sleeping with female cast members on the show (even when they made advances towards them) and stopped acting like a bad person all the time. However, these are the only known reasons why the rape or assault could have happened. 

This story was considered in the past until Johnny Devenanzio came out in an interview calling Tonya a liar looking to cash in on a situation. And despite the fact that there was a mention that unnamed female cast members notified Tonya that an assault took place, Johnny still sticks to saying "nothing criminal took place at all." To be honest, this is something that you would expect from Johnny because he is friends with Evan and Kenny. He also went on to say that "the only think they (Evan and Kenny) are guilty of is taking jokes too far." 

Evan, Johnny and Kenny


Here is my theory. I think they definitely had sex and it might have been done with the toothbrush. But I think all three were completely drunk. I have no idea how someone can make up claims that someone penetrated them with a toothbrush. That just seems like it is so random that it has to hold some water. Now Susie and Sarah claim that they were both in the room when the said event took place, but they claim that nobody raped anybody and that everything was consensual. I do also have to question Tonya's integrity at the same time. I don't like to go against the victim in rape and sexual assault situations, but the case is just so circumstantial. 

Now there was an actually rape case that occurred at Vanderbilt University between football players and a college coed, but there were pictures of the act and hallway videos of the culprits carrying the victim into the room that she was assaulted in. Even that victim was passed out drunk and unaware that her attackers had done anything to her. She even went on to stay friends with one of the defendants that carried out the act. 

The problem with this case is that it is very hard to stay objective here, but it is hard to take Tonya at her word. She was consistently drunk throughout the season and often times being drunk leads to hallucinations of things happening that didn't. Now could it have happened? Of course it could have, I wouldn't put it past Evan and Kenny to do something like that, especially on that particular season to a weaker minded individual like Tonya, it is just very hard to put her at her word and it is even harder with so much circumstantial he said, she said evidence. Again, I do reiterate the fact that they did have sex and I also believe that the female cast member that told Tonya that it happened might have either misunderstood or might have not liked Evan and Kenny. Not to mention, without video proof I cannot give a clear answer that anything bad actually happened. 

Again, I want a possible discussion here, what do you think? Do you think that Evan and Kenny raped or sexually assaulted Tonya with a toothbrush? Or do you think she made it up or was too drunk to remember? Understand that I have to be objective here because of how I feel about certain cast members, but I think that in the end, this theory was as unbiased as possible. 



1 comment:

  1. Considering everything you said and the laws, it is considered rape even when consentual if a female has had 1 drink. Of course I understand it happens all the time, however that doesn't change the law. When inhibitions are low, bad things can happen.

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