Karen Sypher’s defense counsel chose not to call her to the stand to state her case that she didn’t try and extort money from Rick Pitino, a man she says raped her.

In fact, Jim Earhart, chose to rest his case without calling any witnesses at all. When he informed the court of that on Wednesday morning, closing arguments began immediately.

The prosecution called some twenty witnesses during the first seven days of the trial and rested its own case on Tuesday.

Pitino on the stand: sex with Sypher was brief and unfortunate

There are two reasons a defense counsel decides to roll the dice without presenting a case of its own. The first one usually stems from concern that the defendant is a bad witness.

A bad witness can be a person who the jury will dislike, be inclined not to believe or someone who can’t stand up under cross examination.

The second reason is more of a legal strategy. It is the job of the prosecution in a criminal case to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

If the defense believes it has done a good job discrediting the elements of the case against its client, during cross examination of the government’s witnesses, sometimes it’s better to say nothing else.

The prosecution presented witnesses who testified they heard her say things that directly contradicted her allegations about Pitino – things like her claim that she was raped, not once but twice and that she was forced to have an abortion.

Ex-lover of Sypher says she admitted demand for money was a mistake

They also played a tape in court on Tuesday of her visit to local police in 2009, to report the first rape she claimed happened in 2003 at an Italian restaurant, when she said no one else was present but her and Pitino.

The police officer said on the tape that her story didn’t make sense. We had already heard from Pitino’s driver that he was still in the restaurant when the two had sex, consensual or not.

Ex-husband tells court that rape allegations are just plain crazy

Once a jury hears about a woman who has a lot of sex, some with men she barely knows and in public places, it tends to make the defendant less than sympathetic, even as a rape victim.

Besides Pitino’s testimony about sex with Sypher within hours of them meeting, the jury heard from her former lawyer who spoke of oral sex performed on him in his office and an ex-lover who had an affair with her in 2008 while she was married to her second husband.

Sypher’s counsel chose not to chance her being ripped to shreds on cross examination and apparently will make his last ditch effort in his closing statement.

As a former federal prosecutor, he knows well that a unanimous vote by the jury is necessary to convict and his client gets the benefit of reasonable doubt. Only time will tell if it was the right strategy.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

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