|
|
|
Thursday, June 21, 2001
Police report: Stevenson confesses to teen's mom
Associated Press
|
FRESNO, Calif. -- Utah Jazz rookie DeShawn Stevenson was
charged with statutory rape after a 14-year-old girl's mother
accused him of having sex with her daughter.
| |  | |
| Stevenson |
Stevenson, 20, surrendered to police Tuesday night and was charged with statutory rape. He was released on $5,000 bail. According to court records, Stevenson admitted to the girl's mother in a tape-recorded telephone call that he had sex with her daughter.
The 6-foot-5 backup guard is charged along with his best friend,
former high school teammate 19-year-old DeShawn Anderson who turned
himself in on a statutory rape arrest warrant Wednesday evening. A
July 6 hearing was set in Fresno Superior Court.
The girl told police the two and another former teammate took her and a 15-year-old girl to a motel June 6 after buying a bottle of brandy.
According to the report, both girls said they got drunk on
alcohol served by Stevenson. The 14-year-old said she had
consensual sex with Stevenson and later passed out, while the
15-year-old said she had consensual sex with Anderson, the report
said. Also in the room at the time was Richard Millsap, a former
high school teammate of Stevenson and Anderson, whom the
15-year-old said did not participate in the sex.
Everyone left the motel together and the girls were dropped off
at the 15-year-old's house. The 14-year-old's mother, who was
worried because her daughter was late, found her at her friend's
house and picked her up. The mother called police after her
daughter told her what had happened.
The mother later confronted Stevenson in a telephone call that
was recorded, the police report said, and Stevenson admitted he had
sex with the woman's daughter and said Anderson had sex with the
other girl. Stevenson also admitted providing the alcohol.
The 14-year-old and her family have known Stevenson and Anderson for four years.
Stevenson faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Stevenson could not immediately be reached for comment. No one was home at his parents' house where a purple Jazz flag was hanging.
At a news conference Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Jazz officials said they didn't know enough about the case to take action. Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said nobody in the organization had spoken with Stevenson.
"Should he have been in a position that supposedly he was in? No. Do we know what that position was? No. So to support him or to say he was wrong, I don't want to say either one until we know more," O'Connor said.
Stevenson's agent, Rob Pelinka, would not comment. Stevenson's lawyer in the case, Roger Litman, did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.
Stevenson played in 40 games for the Jazz as a rookie, averaging 2.2 points and 0.7 rebounds. He was placed on the injured list March 2 with tendinitis in his right knee and was reactivated April 11.
This is the second time Stevenson has run into legal trouble in
Fresno since he was drafted in the first round by Utah last year,
the 23rd pick overall.
On the night he was drafted, he was involved in a brawl at a
high school all-star basketball game in neighboring Clovis.
Stevenson, who did not play in the June 28 game, said he was jumped by five men after signing autographs. He pleaded innocent to charges of fighting in a public place.
Stevenson is scheduled to be in court Monday for a trial in that case.
|
|
|
|
