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Baxter Holmes
A judge sentenced Ben McLemore to more than eight years in Oregon state prison Wednesday after the former NBA guard was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman at a Lake Oswego house party in 2021.
A Clackamas County Circuit Court jury found the 32-year-old McLemore, who hasn’t played in the NBA since 2022, guilty last week on one charge of first-degree rape, one charge of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and one count of second-degree sexual abuse. The jury didn’t convict McLemore on an additional count of second-degree sexual abuse. McLemore, who was sentenced to 100 months in state prison Wednesday, pleaded not guilty to all four counts.
McLemore did not address the court and was dressed in a Clackamas County Jail inmate clothing.
“Many people are often afraid to report this type of conduct for a number of reasons,” Clackamas County First Assistant District Attorney Scott Healy said in a statement. “Hopefully the victim’s strength and courage in this case will give others the fortitude to come forward in circumstances where sexual assault has occurred. The sentence the defendant received today should serve as a reminder that this type of conduct will not be tolerated in our community, and that the Clackamas County DA’s Office will always work hard to hold offenders accountable and provide justice to victims.”
The charges stem from a report of sexual assault in Lake Oswego on Oct. 3, 2021, at the home of Robert Covington, one of McLemore’s then-teammates on the Portland Trail Blazers. Police began investigating, and McLemore was identified as a suspect.
In February 2024, a Clackamas County grand jury heard evidence in the case, including testimony from the woman who said McLemore assaulted her, and issued an indictment against McLemore as well as an arrest warrant, according to police from Lake Oswego.
U.S. Marshals arrested McLemore two months later.
“We hope the Oregon Legislature will adopt a ‘second look’ process that would evaluate whether he should serve the entire 100 month sentence or whether, beyond the short alcohol-influenced encounter that led to this conviction, he is a considerate and humble person who has lived an honorable, community-focused life,” McLemore’s attorney, Kristen Winemiller, told ESPN on Wednesday.
Healy told jurors during the trial that the woman had been drinking heavily, passed out on a living room couch around 2 a.m., then regained partial consciousness in the morning when McLemore sexually penetrated her with his fingers and then began having sex with her.
McLemore’s attorneys disputed the victim’s account and claimed she initiated sexual contact and consented to it. They also asserted that the woman was sober enough to consent even though both she and McLemore were intoxicated. On Wednesday, the victim appeared by video and read a statement.
“This has been the longest almost four years of my life. I never imagined that reporting this back in 2021 would lead to such an incredibly difficult and long journey,” she said, in part. “These last few years have often felt like a weight that I’ve had to drag behind me, a constant reminder of the trauma that I haven’t been able to fully work through because there was no ending in sight. I now understand, on a deep level, why so many victims hesitate or never report what happened to them.”
McLemore was the seventh pick in the 2013 draft out of Kansas and played for five teams across nine NBA seasons. After playing for the Trail Blazers, McLemore began playing overseas for professional teams in China, Greece and Spain.
