Former NBA participant Ben McLemore has been discovered responsible of raping a 21-year-old girl throughout a lake home get together attended by lots of his then-teammates from the Portland Path Blazers, a jury dominated Thursday.
The jury in Clackamas County, positioned straight south of Portland, discovered McLemore, 32, responsible of rape, illegal sexual penetration and one rely of sexual abuse. He was discovered not responsible on one other rely of sexual abuse, Portland tv station KGW reported.
Sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday.
“We acknowledge there are those that worry people with superstar standing or a place of prominence can keep away from prosecution. Not in Clackamas County. This case demonstrates my workplace prosecutes legal acts whatever the offender’s neighborhood standing,” District Legal professional John Wentworth stated in a press release.
Beth Nakamura, Oregonian by way of AP
The costs stemmed from a celebration on Oct. 3, 2021, on the Lake Oswego dwelling owned by his Path Blazers teammate Robert Covington.
Prosecutors claimed in the course of the trial that the sexual encounter was rape, whereas McLemore’s lawyer countered it was consensual intercourse.
The girl stated she was incapacitated after an evening of heavy ingesting and was unable to offer consent. Prosecutors submitted pictures of the girl hovering over a bathroom after which handed out on a sofa, The Oregonian/Oregon Stay earlier reported.
She stated she wakened at one level in the course of the rape and froze in terror.
“I do not know who this individual is,” she testified. “It is a random individual that’s doing one thing like this to me.” The Related Press usually doesn’t determine victims of sexual assault.
At one level, she stated she let her physique slide to the ground in an effort to cease the assault. The girl testified McLemore pulled her again onto the sofa and continued.
Covington earlier testified he noticed the girl flirting with McLemore whereas they sat on a sofa.
McLemore testified he was additionally ingesting however claimed the intercourse was consensual. He additionally stated he and the girl didn’t have a dialog earlier than, throughout or after the act, after which he instantly left the house.
Considered one of his attorneys, Kris Winemiller, stated McLemore left after receiving an indignant message from this then-wife, who tracked him and needed to know why he wasn’t in their very own Lake Oswego dwelling.
Clackamas County prosecutor Scott Healy stated there was no confusion. “Whenever you take a look at all the encircling circumstances and also you assess the proof on this case, I undergo you that the defendant is responsible,” he stated throughout closing arguments Tuesday.
One other protection lawyer, Lisa Maxfield, argued for McLemore’s acquittal.
“The one affordable verdict in a case the place two individuals get drunk and have intercourse and the person is drunker than the girl, the one affordable verdict in a case like that isn’t responsible,” she stated.
The girl stated she didn’t rent an lawyer to sue McLemore and did not search cash from him. As a substitute she pursued the legal case as a result of “you possibly can’t do this to someone, not to mention someone that you do not know.”
McLemore, who performed faculty at Kansas, was the seventh total choose within the 2013 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. He additionally performed for Memphis, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers earlier than his final NBA season with Portland in 2021-2022.
Since then, he has performed in Europe and China. Final August he signed with a workforce in Turkey.
