A Texas PhD student has been charged with criminal charges after authorities accused him of lying about being assaulted and collecting $40,000 from a GoFundMe meant for his recovery.
Roda Osman, a student in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, was recently charged with felony-level theft by deception. In September, Osman's friends started a GoFundMe called “Help Roda Recover” after his girlfriend Osman allegedly hit her in the face with a brick.
On Saturday, Osman told Fox News Digital he was innocent and was “heartbroken” by the allegations.
Osman posted a video on social media in which she claimed that a man asked her for her phone number and she refused. In the footage, she appeared visibly shaken and pointing at a swollen area on her face.
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Osman told Fox that she has been targeted by the anti-feminist social media user group known as the Manosphere. (@rho.reports8 via TikTok)
Osman's friends have started a GoFundMe called 'Help Roda Recover' after Roda was allegedly hit in the face with a brick. (GoFundMe)
“This guy just hit me in the face with a brick and all the black men just looked on and they didn't get angry,” Osman said.
This video was widely spread on Twitter, According to a report from NBC The situation at that time,[pointed] It's a common pattern of backlash that Black women receive when they publicly denounce harm from Black men. ”
Houston police allege Osman was in an argument with a man when he was hit with a water bottle, according to court documents obtained by FOX News Digital.
“Defendant Osman appeared. [the man] They were in the middle of an argument when Osman waved his right hand while holding an unknown object and struck him. [the man] to his face,” the document says.[The man] He then swung his right hand while holding something that looked like a plastic bottle and punched the defendant in the face. ”
“Video footage of the incident did not corroborate Osman's recorded statement.”
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Osman told Fox that she has been targeted by the anti-feminist social media user group known as the Manosphere. (@rho.reports8 via TikTok)
Police said they were also contacted by a caller accusing Osman of running a fraudulent GoFundMe in 2020.
A 2020 GoFundMe titled “Helping Black Muslim Mother Pay Medical Bills” states that Osman was “severely assaulted by a private security guard in Minneapolis, resulting in multiple facial bruises, a black eye, and leg injuries. “She owes an estimated $5,000,” he reportedly claimed. Pay for medical bills, legal fees, a new cell phone, etc. ”
The caller contacted Minneapolis police, who said they were unable to substantiate the assault charge. Authorities also spoke with Osman's roommate, Rachel, who accused him of fraud in the past.
“Ms. Rachel stated that at first they were cool, but then she realized that Rhoda was scamming people and didn't want anything to do with it,” the document states. “Rachel mentioned a scam that Rhoda participated in by setting up a GoFundMe in 2020 claiming someone had hit her, which was a lie.”
Osman spoke to Fox News Digital about the allegations on Saturday. She said that because of the injury to her head, she could not know exactly what hit her.
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Roda Osman, a researcher in African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin, was recently charged with felony-level theft by deception. (@rho.reports8 via TikTok)
“I am not guilty…As someone who sustained a blunt force head injury and came back online five minutes later for my own safety, I am under no obligation to remember every detail accurately,” Osman said. explained. “That is It's unprecedented, and it's dangerous to blame the victim in that way, and it's also dangerous to hold me to an unlawful standard. ”
“I couldn't see the weapon with which he hit me,” the student added. ”[A brick] What was that like? And when I opened my eyes and looked up, that was the only weapon I saw…so I believe that was the weapon of choice.”
Osman also told Fox News Digital that she has been targeted by the manosphere, a group of anti-feminist social media users.
“Manosphere” [is] “Black women are targeting me for speaking out against black men because they should be protecting black men from the justice system. But when I have been so brutally hurt, I remain silent. I refuse,” she said.
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Houston police say Osman was actually in an argument with a man when he was hit with a water bottle. (Houston Police Department)
Her interests include “black feminist theory, ethnography, urban social movements, and black diaspora studies,” according to Osman's UW-Austin webpage. [and] “Decolonial Studies,” Osman told Fox News Digital that the legal situation has made it difficult for her to focus on school.
“This is a terrible precedent for Black women because they are already unprotected and we are already being silenced,” Osman said. “This sends a really bad message to all black women that if you're assaulted and you don't remember every detail accurately, you're criminalized. And that's a terrible thing. And that's very scary and I think it's very heartbreaking. ”
GoFundMe told Fox News Digital that Osman has been banned from the website.
University of Texas Tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images/File)
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“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for abuse of our platform and is cooperating with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing,” a spokesperson said. “The fundraiser has been removed from the platform, all donors have been refunded, and Roda Osman has been banned from using the platform for any future fundraisers.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Texas at Austin for comment, but did not receive a response.
