Iowa St.'s Palo pleads not guilty to abuse charge

AMES, Iowa (AP) Suspended Iowa State basketball player Bubu Palo has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual abuse.

Palo was suspended Sept. 7 after being charged with sexually abusing a woman he was driving home earlier this year. Online court records say Palo's attorney, Matthew Boles, filed a written plea of not guilty on Tuesday.

Palo and another man, 21-year-old Spencer Cruise, of Ames, were charged with second-degree sexual abuse. The criminal complaint says the men offered to give a woman a ride home on May 18, but instead drove her to a home owned by Cruise's family and ``committed a sex act by force against the victim's will.''

Online records show that Cruise hasn't entered a plea.

Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg has suspended Palo, a reserve guard.