Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Former NBA player Ben McLemore was found guilty of rape and sexual assault of a woman in 2021 while he was with the Portland Trail Blazers, authorities said on Thursday. A Clackamas County Circuit Court jury convicted McLemore on Thursday of first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, and second-degree sexual abuse. Sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday, July 9.
“We recognize there are those who fear individuals with celebrity status or a position of prominence can avoid prosecution. Not in Clackamas County,” county district attorney John Wentworth said in a statement. “This case demonstrates my office prosecutes criminal acts regardless of the offender’s community status.”
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According to a release from the suburban Portland county, the sexual assault by McLemore, 32, upon a woman who was 21 at the time took place on October 3, 2021, after a party at the home of Robert Covington, also a former Trail Blazer player. The victim had been drinking heavily and was “hammered unconscious drunk,” prosecutor Scott Healy told jurors, adding it was the most alcohol the woman had ever had to drink and the most intoxicated she had been in her life.
Healy said the victim had vomited that evening and was seen having difficulty walking with slurred speech and struggles to lift her head before passing out on a living room couch early in the morning. The victim regained partial consciousness when McLemore sexually penetrated her with his fingers before he began having sexual intercourse with her as she faded in and out of consciousness, Healy said. Later that day, the victim sought a special medical exam for sexual assault victims.
“(McLemore) needs to be held accountable for what he did,” the victim said during her trial testimony, according to the county statement. “You can’t do that to somebody, let alone somebody that you don’t know either. You don’t do that to people and just be able to get away with it. I don’t care who you are.”
Defense attorneys for McLemore disputed the victim’s account, saying she initiated sexual contact and consented, asserting that while both McLemore and the victim were intoxicated, the victim was sober enough to consent.
McLemore was the seventh overall selection in the 2013 NBA Draft and went on to play for Sacramento, Memphis, Houston, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Portland. He later played for clubs in China, Greece, Spain, and Turkey.
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