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ARTICLE VIEW:
Oregon jury convicts former NBA player Ben McLemore of raping
incapacitated woman at team party
By Associated Press
Updated:
10:34 PM EDT, Thu July 3, 2025
Source: AP
Former NBA player Ben McLemore has been found guilty of raping a
21-year-old woman during a lake house party attended by many of his
then-teammates from the Portland Trail Blazers, a jury ruled Thursday.
The jury in Clackamas County, located directly south of Portland, found
McLemore, 32, guilty of rape, unlawful sexual penetration and one count
of sexual abuse. He was found not guilty on another count of sexual
abuse, reported.
Sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday.
“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,” District
Attorney John Wentworth said in a statement.
The charges stemmed from a party Oct. 3, 2021, at the Lake Oswego home
owned by his Trail Blazers teammate Robert Covington.
Prosecutors claimed during the trial that the sexual encounter was
rape, while McLemore’s attorney countered it was consensual sex.
The woman said she was incapacitated after a night of heavy drinking
and was unable to give consent. Prosecutors submitted photos of the
woman hovering over a toilet and then passed out on a couch, earlier
reported.
She said she woke up at one point during the rape and froze in terror.
“I don’t know who this person is,” she testified. “This is a
random person that is doing something like this to me.” The
Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual assault.
At one point, she said she let her body slide to the floor in an effort
to stop the assault. The woman testified McLemore pulled her back onto
the couch and continued.
Covington earlier testified he saw the woman flirting with McLemore
while they sat on a couch.
McLemore testified he was also drinking but claimed the sex was
consensual. He also said he and the woman did not have a conversation
before, during or after the act, after which he immediately left the
home.
One of his attorneys, Kris Winemiller, said McLemore left after
receiving an angry message from this then-wife, who tracked him and
wanted to know why he wasn’t in their own Lake Oswego home.
Clackamas County prosecutor Scott Healy said there was no confusion.
“When you look at all the surrounding circumstances and you assess
the evidence in this case, I submit to you that the defendant is
guilty,” he said during closing arguments Tuesday.
Another defense attorney, Lisa Maxfield, argued for McLemore’s
acquittal.
“The only reasonable verdict in a case where two people get drunk and
have sex and the man is drunker than the woman, the only reasonable
verdict in a case like that is not guilty,” she said.
The woman said she did not hire an attorney to sue McLemore and
didn’t seek money from him. Instead she pursued the criminal case
because “you can’t do that to somebody, let alone somebody that you
don’t know.”
McLemore, who played college at Kansas, was the seventh pick in the
2013 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. He also played for Memphis,
Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers before his last NBA season with
Portland in 2021-2022.
Since then, he has played in Europe and China. Last August he signed
with a team in Turkey.
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