Former NBA participant Ben McLemore has been discovered responsible of raping a 21-year-old lady throughout a lake home social gathering attended by a lot of his then-teammates from the Portland Path Blazers, a jury dominated Thursday.
The jury in Clackamas County, positioned instantly south of Portland, discovered McLemore, 32, responsible of rape, illegal sexual penetration and one depend of sexual abuse.
He was discovered not responsible on one other depend of sexual abuse, Portland tv station KGW reported.
Sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday.
“We acknowledge there are those that concern people with movie star standing or a place of prominence can keep away from prosecution. Not in Clackamas County. This case demonstrates my workplace prosecutes prison acts whatever the offender’s neighborhood standing,” District Lawyer John Wentworth stated in a press release.
The fees stemmed from a celebration Oct. 3, 2021, on the Lake Oswego dwelling owned by his Path Blazers teammate Robert Covington.
Prosecutors claimed throughout 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 consuming and was unable to provide consent.
Prosecutors submitted images of the lady hovering over a bathroom after which handed out on a sofa, The Oregonian/Oregon Reside earlier reported.
She stated she awoke at one level throughout the rape and froze in terror.
“I don’t know who this particular person is,” she testified. “It is a random particular person that’s doing one thing like this to me.” The Related Press usually doesn’t establish 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 lady flirting with McLemore whereas they sat on a sofa.
McLemore testified he was additionally consuming however claimed the intercourse was consensual.
He additionally stated he and the lady didn’t have a dialog earlier than, throughout or after the act, after which he instantly left the house.
Certainly 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 cheap verdict in a case the place two folks get drunk and have intercourse and the person is drunker than the lady, the one cheap verdict in a case like that’s not responsible,” she stated.
The girl stated she didn’t rent an lawyer to sue McLemore and didn’t search cash from him.
As a substitute she pursued the prison case as a result of “you may’t do this to someone, not to mention someone that you simply don’t know.”
McLemore, who performed school at Kansas, was the seventh 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 group in Turkey.
