A Los Angeles lawyer once celebrated by the Obama White House as a champion against violence toward women now faces six felony counts for allegedly terrorizing his own girlfriend over the course of a year.

Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Cody McDavis, 32, with three felony counts of inflicting corporal injury, two felony counts of stalking, and one felony count of attempting to prevent his girlfriend from pursuing prosecution, the New York Post reported. He also faces three misdemeanor counts of violating a protective order. Prosecutors recommended bail at $550,000, and his arraignment is set for September 2.

The complaint, filed July 20 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges McDavis "willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly" followed and harassed his girlfriend between July 2025 and June 2026, leaving her fearing for the safety of herself and her immediate family. The charges describe not just physical violence but a deliberate effort to keep the victim from going to authorities, a pattern that, if proven, would amount to a calculated campaign of control and intimidation.

A 6-foot-8 'champion' for women built his brand on moral authority

McDavis is no obscure figure. The 6-foot-8 former Division I basketball player at the University of Northern Colorado parlayed his athletic profile into a high-visibility role as an advocate against sexual violence on college campuses. He earned a law degree from UCLA and landed at Vedder Price, a prominent Los Angeles law firm.

His advocacy credentials were considerable. The Obama-Biden administration launched the "It's On Us" campaign in 2014 to combat sexual assault on college campuses, and McDavis became one of its public faces. The White House honored him with a Champion of Change award for that work.

In 2019, McDavis started a Change.org petition calling on the NCAA's Power Five conference commissioners to ban student-athletes with a history of violence. The petition collected more than 280,000 signatures. That same year, Sports Illustrated profiled him in an article titled "Cody McDavis Fighting to See Change in the NCAA Sexual Assault Policy." He was also named a Solidarity Honoree at the 2019 Voices of Solidarity event, which recognizes men who stand against gender-based violence and serve as allies to survivors.

The Obama administration has remained a fixture in public life, with the Obama Presidential Center generating its own controversies in recent years. But the White House imprimatur McDavis carried gave him a platform few advocates enjoy, and a moral credibility he now stands accused of betraying in the most direct way possible.

McDavis's own words make the charges harder to square

At the 2019 Voices of Solidarity event, McDavis delivered remarks that read very differently in light of the criminal complaint. Speaking about women doing advocacy work against gender-based violence, he told the audience:

"The women in here who are doing this incredible work are told and told and told we want to hear your voice, but when you start talking, you get shoved down."

"That makes me sick, I can't stand that," he added.

He also praised rape survivor and advocate Brenda Tracy, with whom he had developed the "Tracy Rule", a proposed policy to ban student-athletes with histories of violence. McDavis told the audience Tracy was "a survivor, and what you say matters and we should be listening."

His Change.org petition struck the same note. "My name is Cody McDavis. I am a former Division I student-athlete and the prevalence of sexual violence in college athletics makes me sick," he wrote. "That's why I'm calling on the Power Five Conference Commissioners, the most influential conferences in the NCAA, to immediately ban student-athletes with a history of violence."

Those words, "ban student-athletes with a history of violence", now sit alongside a criminal complaint alleging McDavis himself carried out a yearlong pattern of violence against an intimate partner. The contradiction is not subtle. A man who built a public career on the premise that violent men should face consequences now faces the very accountability he demanded for others.

The Obama family has not been shy about lecturing Americans on masculinity and proper conduct. Whether anyone in that orbit will address the fact that one of their hand-picked champions now stands accused of the conduct he was honored for opposing remains an open question.

Prominent defense attorney, no comment from employer

McDavis has retained Shawn Holley, a prominent defense attorney known for representing high-profile clients including members of OJ Simpson's defense team, as well as Kanye West, Justin Bieber, and Lindsay Lohan. Holley did not respond to the New York Post's request for comment.

Vedder Price, the Los Angeles law firm where McDavis works as an associate, also did not respond to a request for comment. Whether the firm has taken any action regarding his employment status following the charges is unknown.

The girlfriend's name has not been made public. The complaint does not detail the specific nature of the injuries alleged under the corporal injury counts, nor does it identify the locations where the alleged incidents took place. What is clear from the charges is the scope: prosecutors describe conduct stretching across an entire year, from July 2025 through June 2026, encompassing physical violence, stalking, and active interference with the victim's ability to seek help from law enforcement.

The three misdemeanor counts for violating a protective order suggest the legal system had already intervened at some point during the alleged conduct, and that McDavis is accused of disregarding that intervention. The details of when the protective order was issued and by whom are not specified in the complaint as reported.

The NCAA, for its part, never adopted the Tracy Rule that McDavis championed. Individual schools have voluntarily enforced versions of it, but the national governing body declined to make it binding policy. That institutional hesitation looks prescient in hindsight, though for reasons no one anticipated.

The broader pattern is familiar enough. Public figures who build their reputations on moral causes, often in orbits that prize symbolic gestures, sometimes turn out to be the worst violators of the principles they espouse. The "It's On Us" campaign asked Americans to believe that prominent male allies could change the culture around violence against women on campus. McDavis was held up as proof that the model worked.

Now prosecutors in Los Angeles allege the model's poster boy spent a year doing exactly what he told the country he found sickening.

Nine counts and a $550,000 bail recommendation tell their own story

The weight of the charges matters. Six felonies and three misdemeanors, with bail recommended at more than half a million dollars, signal that prosecutors view this as a serious and sustained pattern of conduct, not an isolated incident. The felony count for attempting to prevent the victim from pursuing prosecution is particularly telling. It suggests not just violence but a deliberate effort to maintain control over the victim and evade accountability.

McDavis's arraignment is scheduled for September 2. He has not made any public statement in response to the charges beyond retaining counsel. He is presumed innocent, and the allegations remain unproven.

But the gap between the public persona and the criminal complaint is vast. A man honored by a sitting president, profiled in national media, and celebrated at advocacy galas now stands accused of the very conduct he built his reputation opposing, and of trying to silence the woman he allegedly victimized. The Obama circle has never lacked for moral pronouncements. This would be a good time for one.

Awards and speeches don't protect anyone. Accountability does, and it applies to champions the same as everyone else.