The second week of the trial of Karen Sypher, accused of extorting money and other things of value from Rick Pitino kicked off with some “kiss and tell” testimony.

An ex-husband and two ex-lovers, one of whom was Sypher’s attorney prior to her indictment in April 2009, gave testimony that could seriously derail her defense, according to Louisville’s courier-journal.com and the Lexington Herald Leader.

Sypher and Pitino had one night of sex in 2003, out of which came Sypher’s allegations of rape and subsequent alleged attempts at extortion for her silence about the University of Louisville men’s basketball coach.

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

The saddest testimony came from her former lawyer, Dana R. Kolter who took his client’s word about the rape allegations and sought to work out a settlement with Pitino in order to avoid filing a civil lawsuit against him.

Kolter who crossed ethical boundaries by having sex with a client while representing her, said the suit he threatened to bring might not have been allowed by a court.

“I don’t know if I would have won that argument,” said Kolter on the stand Monday. He also testified that he tried to get her psychological counseling, because he thought, “…her eggs were scrambled.”

Tim Sypher calls ex-wife’s rape allegations, “craziness”

Another lover took the stand on Monday and told the jury that within days of her being charged with extortion, he met with Karen Sypher to ask about the situation.

Tyree Fields, a former basketball talent scout met Sypher in 2008 at which time they began an affair. She was still marreid to her latest ex-husband, Tim Sypher in 2008.

By the spring of 2009 they were merely friends and Fields’ testimony on Monday indicated Sypher knew what she had done. “Her response to me was that it was stupid, I shouldn’t have done it,” said Fields on the stand.

Rick Wise, a two-time ex-husband of Sypher’s (they divorced in 1984, remarried in 1986 and divorced again in 2002) testified on Monday. According to Wise, he declined to meet with her to discuss her money demands from Pitino prior to her arrest.

He told the court that once Karen was arrested, he suggested she take a plea deal to which she told him, ““If I am going down, I am going to take Pitino with me.’”

Testimony resumes on Tuesday.

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. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Rick Pitino has an ally in defending his honor against rape charges. His name is Tim Sypher, the ex-husband of the woman on trial for extortion, in connection with the rape charges.

Pitino took the stand on Thursday for a second day and withstood cross-examination by Karen Sypher’s attorney, He was reported to have lost his composure when trying to describe how it felt to have his private indiscretions aired in public.

Louisville’s courier-journal.com reported Pitino told defense counsel, “It has been extremely embarrassing. The most difficult thing was telling my wife and children.”

What he was forced to tell them was that he had a brief sexual encounter in 2003 with Karen Sypher, then known as Karen Wise, a woman he had only met the night they had relations. The details of that are contained in the original story, found here.

He also had to confess that the woman claimed she got pregnant as a result of the sex with Pitino, had an abortion and in 2009 said she was raped that night in 2003, for which she was seeking money to keep it all on the down low.

That is where Tim Sypher comes in. Sypher was on Pitino’s coaching staff, in 2003, he served as the Louisville Cardinals’ equipment manager.

He met with Karen Wise, a woman he didn’t know, at the request of his boss. Rick Pitino then asked him to be part of a 2003 meeting with the two of them to discuss the pregnancy. From there it gets a bit weird.

Sypher testified that he drove his future wife to an abortion clinic in Cincinnati, only days after the meeting. They began a romantic affair and within six months they were married. They had a child together in 2005.

It wasn’t until early 2009 that Tim Sypher says, he first heard rape allegations from Karen. He told the court he found them surprising and troubling.

More disturbing to him was the fact that a man, not him, had left voice messages for Pitino about the rape claim.

In conjunction with making claims of rape, Karen Sypher started to demand things from Pitino. Tim delivered a letter to his boss containing a laundry list of of wants and desires. Somehow, no one thinks Tim was in agreement with Karen on how she was going about all this.

According to the courier-journal.com “She started saying I want this, I want that,” Sypher said. The letter to Pitino “… included a demand for money to pay for college for her four sons, a ‘car of my choice’ and a house paid off, according to the one-page, handwritten letter introduced in court.”

Tim Sypher characterized the rape charges against Pitino as “craziness”. He and his wife separated after she continued to insist on receiving compensation and the couple is now divorced.

In the coming days there will be more testimony about how her demands got her charged for extortion.

How will Pitino face parents of recruits after this?

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. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Rick Pitino took the stand on Wednesday in the federal trial of Karen Sypher, a woman, prosecutors claim tried to extort millions of dollars from the University of Louisville men’s basketball coach.

What else would this be about if it weren’t about mere money? Sex of course and from what Pitino said during the trial’s morning session on Wednesday, it wasn’t a lengthy affair.

How do you make something sleazy – sex in public on the table of a closed restaurant- even more so? You say it was brief, “unfortunate” and only happened because the woman whispered in your ear and tugged on your pants zipper.

Oh yes, and that a male companion was sitting on the other side of the place while it all happened.

From the Louisville Courier Journal, by way of USA Today: “Unfortunate things happen,” Pitino said after he told the prosecutor, under direct questioning about the details of the event.

Will Pitino lose recruits as a result of it all?

Ms. Sypher was unmarried at the time and is currently estranged from her husband, one Tim Sypher who was then and until very recently still was on Pitino’s staff at Louisville.

Pitino’s testimony is the first time he has uttered a word on the subject since Sypher was charged in the spring of 2009.

Sypher says she was raped by Pitino, making the testimony of the man in the restaurant during the encounter, somewhat important.

That man is Vinnie Tatum, Pitino’s driver (nice life he leads down there in Louisville) who says all he heard were “…the sounds of two people that seemed to be enjoying themselves during a sexual encounter,” He told that to FBI investigators in 2009.

Sypher is accused of attempting to extort money in exchange for never uttering a word about that night and what occurred thereafter.

Sypher, Pitino said, called to say she was pregnant, had no money for health care and didn’t know what to do.

On the stand Wednesday, Pitino said, “I didn’t believe at the time it was my child,” Nonetheless he gave her $3,000 for health insurance, according to him, an abortion, according to her.

Sypher claims no extortion took place. Rather it was nothing but her discussions about settling a case she intended to bring against Pitino for sexual assault, among other things.

The intent of the accused when discussing money in exchange for dropping a law suit is important to proving extortion. There also must be facts that give rise to a plausible belief a law suit was about to be filed at all.

That is the kind of testimony that will come when Sypher gets on the stand as well as her representatives who engaged in the supposed negotiations with Pitino and his attorney.

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. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC