An Oregon jury Thursday convicted former NBA player Ben McLemore on rape and sexual abuse charges that emerged from a 2021 party he attended while a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Over a two-week trial that ended Tuesday at a Clackamas County courtroom, prosecutors made the case that McLemore, 32, raped a then-21-year-old woman who had passed out from intoxication. McLemore maintained he had consensual sex with the woman during the early-morning hours of Oct. 3, 2021, at the residence of Robert Covington, a Blazers teammate of McLemore’s at the time.
The jury found McLemore guilty of first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and second-degree sexual abuse, according to the Clackamas County district attorney’s office. A sentencing hearing has been set 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,” district attorney John Wentworth said in a statement. “This case demonstrates my office prosecutes criminal acts regardless of the offender’s community status.”
One of the attorneys for McLemore, Kris Winemiller, said Thursday via email that she and colleague Lisa Maxfield would have no comment until their client is sentenced. During closing arguments Tuesday (via the Associated Press), Maxfield had urged the jury to find her client not guilty, describing that as the “only reasonable verdict in a case where two people get drunk and have sex and the man is drunker than the woman.”
In a statement he shared last year, McLemore said, “I did not rape this woman. I am not sexually abusive. I have never pursued a sexual relationship when I understood the woman was not interested in me and acting willingly.”
The district attorney’s office said Thursday that prosecutor Scott Healy had told jurors that the woman was more intoxicated on the night in question than she had ever previously been. She was said to have vomited earlier in the evening, and Healy noted that witnesses testified she had difficulty with speaking, walking and keeping her head up. She was said to have passed out on a couch in the living room at around 2 a.m., with McLemore subsequently falling asleep on that couch.
At approximately 6 a.m., per the district attorney’s office, the woman regained partial consciousness when McLemore committed digital penetration before having sexual intercourse. She was said to have then sought, later that day, a medical examination meant for victims of sexual assault.
McLemore “needs to be held accountable for what he did,” the woman said while on the stand, according to Clackamas County prosecutors. “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.”
During the trial, defense attorneys had argued the intercourse was consensual and initiated by the woman. In his courtroom testimony (via Portland station KGW), McLemore said he was woken up on the couch by the woman, who he said was fondling him. He reportedly told the court that he and the woman never spoke to each other and that he left the home immediately after their encounter.
The party took place a few weeks before the start of the 2021-22 season, McLemore’s last in the NBA. A St. Louis native who played one season of college ball at Kansas, he was drafted seventh overall in 2013 by the Sacramento Kings. He spent a total of five seasons with that club and had brief stints with the Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers before signing with Portland in August 2021. Some other members of the Blazers at the time were also said during the trial to have been at the party.
In the past few years, McLemore has been playing overseas. He finished a season with a Turkish team in May.
