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