Rick Pitino Sex Scandal

AUGUST 12--For fans of college basketball and alleged shakedown plots, here is the Louisville Metro Police Department report detailing a July 12 interview with coach Rick Pitino about rape allegations leveled against him by a woman now under federal indictment for trying to extort money from the University of Louisville coach.

According to the report, Pitino--during an interview in his "office at the Yum! Center"--denied Karen Sypher's accusations, telling Sergeant Andy Abbott that he engaged in consensual sex with Sypher at a restaurant in August 2003. As first reported by The Courier-Journal, Pitino also acknowledged giving Sypher $3000 to pay for an abortion after she told him she was pregnant.

Citing Sypher's credibility problems, Louisville prosecutors have declined to file charges against the 56-year-old Pitino. Though the alleged assaults took place six years ago, Sypher only filed a police report last month (she was charged in mid-May with seeking to extort money from Pitino in return for her silence about the supposed attacks).

A second report prepared by Abbott recounts a conversation he had with FBI Agent David Beyer, who investigated Sypher's alleged extortion bid. Beyer reported that a Pitino friend, Vinnie Tatum, told him that he was present in the closed restaurant on the night of the sexual encounter between Pitino and Sypher. When interviewed by the FBI, Beyer said that Tatum, "stated that he only heard the sounds of two people that seemed to be enjoying themselves during a sexual encounter."

For completists, we've posted the Louisville police file on the case, which was provided to TSG in two PDF volumes (here and here). Transcripts from recorded interviews with Sypher account for most of the file's 163 pages. (4 pages)