Ex-NBA guard Ben McLemore sentenced to more than 8 years in prison in 2021 rape: Reports
McLemore was a member of the Portland Trail Blazers at the time of the incident.
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A jury in Clackamas County, Ore., found McLemore, 32, guilty of first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and second-degree sexual abuse last Thursday. McLemore was found not guilty on a count of sexual abuse. He pleaded not guilty to all four accounts.
'I know people are hurting, and I want to acknowledge the weight of what has happened. My heart goes out to everyone who has been impacted,' McLemore said via a statement from his attorneys, Lisa Maxfield and Kris Winemiller of Pacific Northwest Law LLP. 'This would not have occurred if I was clear-headed. I take responsibility for that. It would be an understatement to say that my thought processes and judgment were impaired.'
Attorneys from the Clackamas County District Attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Athletic.
The incident occurred Oct. 3, 2021, after a party at then-teammate Robert Covington's house in Lake Oswego. Prosecutor Scott Healy told jurors the woman had been drinking heavily, passed out on a living room couch, then regained partial consciousness when McLemore sexually penetrated her with his fingers, then began having sexual intercourse with her.
The woman was 'fading in and out' of consciousness, frightened and traumatized, Healy said. Later that day, she sought a specialized medical examination for victims of sexual assault.
'(The defendant) needs to be held accountable for what he did,' the woman said during her trial testimony. '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.'
McLemore's attorneys disputed the victim's account of events, saying she initiated sexual contact and consented to it. His attorneys asserted that although the victim and McLemore were intoxicated at the time of the encounter, the victim was sober enough to consent.
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The seventh pick in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings, McLemore played for the Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers before his last season with the Trail Blazers in 2021-22. He recently played professionally overseas in Europe, China and Turkey.
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