Ex-Trail Blazer guilty of raping woman at team party

After an 11-day trial during which two other former Trailblazer players testified, former Trailblazer Ben McLemore was found guilty Thursday of raping a woman at a drunken team party in Lake Oswego.

Before rendering its decision, the eight-member jury—four of whom were women—deliberated for roughly ten hours.

As Circuit Judge Michael Wetzel read the verdict out loud, McLemore glanced ahead and saw that he was guilty on one count of first-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, and second-degree sexual abuse.

The obligatory minimum term for McLemore, 32, is eight years and four months in prison. At the end of the hearing, he was placed under arrest.

McLemore stood to embrace his mother, who had come from St. Louis, Missouri, to attend the trial, during a brief intermission before he was put in handcuffs.

Although the victim has the right to speak during a sentencing hearing, McLemore had requested that the court sentence him immediately, although he was not ready to do so.

Next Wednesday, the sentencing is set for 9:30 a.m.

Kristen Winemiller, one of McLeMore’s attorneys, stated that the defense team was taken aback by the decision.

However, the jurors put in a great deal of effort and took the case seriously, and the judge did the same, she said.

The woman was commended for coming forward by First Assistant District Attorney Scott Healy, who worked with Deputy District Attorney Randi Hall to prosecute the case.

To hear the decision, she watched from a distance.

“She stayed the course and has been waiting for three years and nine months to be vindicated for what happened to her,” Healy said. She hasn’t emotionally recovered from this at all. She continues to experience emotional distress as a result of what transpired.

Prosecutors in Clackamas County charged McLemore with sexually assaulting the 21-year-old woman at a party hosted by Blazers player Robert Covington in October 2021.

According to McLemore’s testimony, the woman started having sex with him while he was very drunk.

According to testimony given during the trial in Oregon City, the two did not know one another prior to the party and just exchanged brief introductions.

The woman went to college in Washington and resided in Vancouver at the time. She currently works for a cosmetics company and resides in Texas. Victims of sexual assault are usually not identified by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Healy informed jurors during closing arguments on Tuesday that the woman had consumed a lot of alcohol prior to and during the celebration, and that she had once puked into a toilet before fainting on a couch.

According to the woman’s testimony, she woke up to McLemore sexually abusing her. She claimed that once she allowed her body to slide off the couch, the assault continued, and she did not speak during it. McLemore, she claimed, pushed her back to the couch and went on.

She claimed that throughout the incident, she slipped in and out of consciousness.

Healy informed the jury that she was physically defenseless when he did this to her. Additionally, he lacked permission to harm her in that way.

Healy told the jury that McLemore witnessed the woman throwing up in the bathroom, assisted her out, and then, once she was on the couch, he pushed his finger down her throat to make her throw up, underscoring McLemore’s knowledge of her compromised position.

The prosecution displayed a picture of the woman lingering over a toilet that was taken during the party.

“He’s doing everything he can to lift her dead weight and literally drag her from that bathroom to that couch, so he has an absolute, complete, total idea of how unconscious, hammered drunk she is,” Healy added.

Healy referred to McLemore’s story of the woman initiating the encounter as an alternate reality defense that McLemore developed after discovering that law enforcement had performed a DNA analysis. He also emphasized McLemore’s initial denials to Lake Oswego police that he had sex with the woman and his subsequent reversal.

McLemore admitted to having intercourse with the woman and maintained that she was the one who first made contact with him. Lisa Maxfield, one of his attorneys, informed jurors that McLemore was intoxicated and did not realize the woman was incapable of making decisions for herself.

She indicated a text message exchange between the woman’s pals. Maxfield told jurors that one texted that she witnessed something between the woman and McLemore but didn’t give it much thought.

According to Maxfield, both McLemore and the woman were intoxicated and could not provide their consent for the interaction.

Maxfield informed the panel, “This is the 21st century.” Like men, adult women have agency. They’re not plush toys. They are mature adults who make mature decisions, just as men. It’s not always the male’s fault when two inebriated individuals have sex and the man is just as inebriated as the woman.

Healy informed jurors that McLemore thought the lady he had intercourse with was unconscious the entire time, so he went to the kitchen to get paper towels to wipe her up before leaving.

He never speaks. Healy remarked, “She never opens her eyes.”

McLemore said that he left the house in a hurry and attributed his hurried departure on a barrage of irate texts from his ex-wife.

at support of McLemore’s story, Covington testified that he witnessed a woman attempting to rouse McLemore while they were sitting on a couch at his house. Then, he says, he walked out of the room.

Covington stated that he threw his teammates what he dubbed a kickback party that evening, characterizing it as a place to spend private time together away from the spotlight.

According to him, some visitors smoked marijuana outside while others took shots of Casamigos Tequila.

Prior to joining the Blazers as teammates, Covington and McLemore played together with the Houston Rockets.

McLemore is no longer with the NBA after spending one season with the Blazers in 2021–2022. Professionally, he has performed in China, Europe, and most recently, Turkey.

Quinn Cook, a former Blazer, also gave testimony. Cook, a five-year NBA player who now plays professionally in China, was on the 2021 preseason roster until being dismissed by the team halfway through camp.

Cook was primarily McLemore’s character witness.

He stated in his testimony that he went to the party, abstained from alcohol, and departed early before the claimed attack occurred.

Criminal justice is the area of expertise for enterprise reporter Noelle Crombie. You can contact her at ncrombie@oregonian.com or 503-276-7184.

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