Former NBA Player Ben McLemore Convicted Of Rape

More than a decade removed from being a promising draft prospect, Ben McLemore has seen his career fizzle amid legal issues. After an 11-day trial, the jury spent approximately 10 hours deliberating to find McLemore guilty on three counts: first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and second-degree sexual abuse, according to a press release from Clackamas County. “We recognize there are those who fear individuals with celebrity status or a position of prominence can avoid prosecution. Not in Clackamas County. This case demonstrates my office prosecutes criminal acts regardless of the offender’s community status,” said District Attorney John Wentworth. The assault occurred back in 2021 when McLemore was at Portland Trail Blazers teammate Robert Covington’s home for a party.

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Once the party was over, the 21-year-old victim, who was “hammered unconscious drunk,” —and witnesses say was vomiting earlier in the night and had slurred speech—, passed out on a couch around 2 am.  32-year-old McLemore eventually crashed on the same couch at around 6 am. The woman woke up to him penetrating her with his fingers and eventually having sex with her while she was “fading in and out” of consciousness. “I don’t know who this person is,” she testified. “This is a random person that is doing something like this to me.” She said she even tried to let her body slide to the floor, thinking he’d stop, but instead he repositioned her on the couch and continued the assault. She claims she never gave him consent and was “the most alcohol she’d ever consumed in her life and the “most intoxicated she’s ever been,” while his defense lawyers say she actually initiated the intimacy.  “(The defendant) needs to be held accountable for what he did. 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,” the victim said while testifying. The Sacramento Kings picked McLemore with the seventh pick in the 2013 draft, where he spent the first few seasons of his career before being traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, and Los Angeles Lakers. He’d last played for the Trail Blazers, where the assault occurred before he headed overseas, most recently playing for Turkish basketball club Merkezefendi Belediyesi Denizli. McLemore will be sentenced on Wednesday, July 9. See social media’s reaction to the ruling below. 

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