Former NBA player Ben McLemore was found guilty on July 3 of raping and sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman at a party in 2021, a verdict announced by Clackamas County in Oregon.
McLemore was convicted by a jury of Rape in the First Degree, Unlawful Sexual Penetration in the First Degree and Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree. He will be sentenced on July 9.
The incident happened at a party on Oct. 3, 2021, when McLemore was a member of the Portland Trail Blazers (his last stop in his nine-year NBA career). The victim had been drinking heavily and was “hammered unconscious drunk” that night, prosecutor Scott Healy told jurors. It was the most she had ever drank and she had vomited earlier in the evening, had difficulty walking and had slurred speech, Healy said.
The victim passed out on a large living room couch around 2 a.m., and at some point, McLemore started sleeping on the same couch. While the victim was “fading in and out” of consciousness, frightened and traumatized, McLemore began having sexual intercourse with her and sexually assaulted her.
Realizing what had happened, later that day the victim sought a specialized medical examination for victims of sexual assault.
“(McLemore) needs to be held accountable for what he did. 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,” the victim said during her trial testimony.
McLemore’s attorneys had argued that the victim had initiated the sexual contact and that this was consensual. The jury disagreed.
“We recognize there are those who fear individuals with celebrity status or a position of prominence can avoid prosecution. Not in Clackamas County. This case demonstrates my office prosecutes criminal acts regardless of the offender’s community status,” said District Attorney John Wentworth.
A star at Kansas in college, McLemore was the No. 7 pick of the Sacramento Kings in 2013 and played nine NBA seasons, the first four in Sacramento, then for the Grizzlies, Rockets and Lakers before joining the Timberwolves. He had been playing in Spain starting in the fall of 2022 and was arrested in 2024 by U.S. Marshals upon his return to the United States.
