Former NBA player BEN MCLEMORE convicted of s3xually assaulting incapacitated woman at team party

Friday, July 4, 2025 - Former NBA player Ben McLemore has been found guilty of raping a 21-year-old woman during a lake house party attended by several of his then-Portland Trail Blazers teammates, a jury in Clackamas County, Oregon, ruled on Thursday.

The jury convicted McLemore, 32, of rape, unlawful sexual penetration, and one count of sexual abuse. He was acquitted on another sexual abuse count. Sentencing is set for Wednesday.

“This case demonstrates my office prosecutes criminal acts regardless of an offender’s community status,” Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth said in a statement, addressing concerns that celebrity defendants often evade accountability.

The charges stemmed from an October 3, 2021 party at a Lake Oswego home owned by McLemore’s teammate Robert Covington.

Prosecutors argued the encounter was rape, while McLemore’s defense insisted it was consensual.

The woman testified she was incapacitated after heavy drinking and unable to give consent. Photos presented in court showed her bent over a toilet and later passed out on a couch. She said she awoke during the assault, terrified and unable to react.

“I don’t know who this person is,” she testified. “This is a random person doing something like this to me.”

At one point, she let herself slide to the floor to stop the assault, but said McLemore pulled her back onto the couch and continued.

Covington testified he had seen the woman flirting with McLemore earlier that night.

Taking the stand, McLemore said he had also been drinking but maintained the sex was consensual. He testified that there was no conversation before, during, or after the act, and that he left immediately after receiving an angry message from his then-wife, who had tracked his location.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Scott Healy urged the jury to look at the full context. “When you assess the evidence in this case, the defendant is guilty,” he said.

McLemore’s attorney, Lisa Maxfield, argued for acquittal, claiming, “The only reasonable verdict in a case where two people get drunk and have sex — and the man is drunker than the woman — is not guilty.”

The woman told the court she never hired a lawyer to sue McLemore or sought money, saying she pursued criminal charges because “you can’t do that to somebody, let alone someone you don’t even know.”

McLemore, who starred at Kansas, was the seventh pick in the 2013 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. He also played for Memphis, Houston, and the Lakers before joining Portland for the 2021-2022 season. Since then, he has played professionally in Europe and China, and last August signed with a team in Turkey.