A once-promising NBA star has been convicted of raping a 21-year-old girl throughout a 2021 Oregon home get together attended by a lot of his then-Portland Path Blazers teammates.
Ben McLemore, 32, will likely be sentenced on Wednesday in Oregon Metropolis, the place he faces a compulsory minimal sentence of eight years and 4 months in jail.
The Clackamas County jury discovered him 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.
‘We acknowledge there are those that concern people with celeb 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 Lawyer John Wentworth mentioned in an announcement.
The costs stemmed from a celebration October 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 legal professional countered it was consensual intercourse.
Former Portland Path Blazer Ben McLremore, who was convicted July 3, 2025, of raping a lady, is pictured in a courtroom in Oregon Metropolis, Oregon, on June 17, 2025. (Beth Nakamura, Oregonian through AP)
The girl mentioned she was incapacitated after an evening of heavy consuming and was unable to present consent. Prosecutors submitted photographs of the girl hovering over a bathroom after which handed out on a sofa, The Oregonian/Oregon Reside earlier reported.
She mentioned she awoke 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.’
At one level, she mentioned 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.
Ben McLemore final appeared within the NBA in 2022, for the Portland Path Blazers
McLemore testified he was additionally consuming however claimed the intercourse was consensual. He additionally mentioned he and the girl didn’t have a dialog earlier than, throughout or after the act, after which he instantly left the house.
One in all his attorneys, Kris Winemiller, mentioned McLemore left after receiving an indignant message from this then-wife, who tracked him and wished to know why he wasn’t in their very own Lake Oswego dwelling.
Clackamas County prosecutor Scott Healy mentioned there was no confusion.
‘Once you have a look at all the encompassing circumstances and also you assess the proof on this case, I undergo you that the defendant is responsible,’ he mentioned throughout closing arguments Tuesday.
One other protection legal professional, Lisa Maxfield, argued for McLemore’s acquittal.
‘The one affordable verdict in a case the place two folks 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 mentioned.
The girl mentioned she didn’t rent an legal professional to sue McLemore and didn´t search cash from him. As an alternative she pursued the legal case as a result of ‘you may´t do this to someone, not to mention someone that you just don´t know.’
Ben McLemore exhibits off his swimsuit after being picked by the Kings within the NBA Draft
McLemore, who performed faculty 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.
He has at the very least one little one, Teagan, who was born in 2017.
In March of 2024, McLemore issued an apology for a drunken-driving incident in Lugo Spain.
‘I’ve made a mistake that I’m not happy with,’ he mentioned, as quoted by Eurohoops.internet. N’ow, greater than ever, my want is to proceed serving to my teammates and the membership, be taught from this error, and set the precise instance for all those that imagine in me, particularly for the little ones.
‘Because of this, I sincerely apologize and I ask that nobody doubt that I’ll give my finest, personally and professionally, to assist obtain the targets that all of us need.’
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