Sypher found guilty of extortion in Pitino trial
In a case with enough twists that it might have been a Law & Order episode, Karen Cunagin Sypher has been found guilty of extorting Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino in exchange for her silence regarding their extra-marital affair.
The 50-year-old Sypher was convicted Thursday on three counts of extortion, two counts of lying to FBI and one count of retaliating against a witness after the former car model demanded millions from Pitino to keep their secret quiet.
Over the course of the eight-day trial, the jury learned that in 2003, Sypher and Pitino engaged in a brief sexual encounter inside a closed restaurant and that last year, Pitino began receiving threatening phone calls and letters claiming she would expose him. After he came forward with threats, a decision he says he delayed for fear of the damage it would inflict on his family and career, Sypher was charged but claimed that the Louisville coach had raped her.
“Some unfortunate things happened,” Pitino told the court, before Assistant U.S Attorney Marissa Ford asked directly if they had s*x. “Yes, very briefly,” Pitino replied.
On February 26, 2009, Pitino said that he had received a cell phone message from a man describing their encounter as a “violent assault.”
“He used the word rape,” Pitino testified. “I felt very sick to my stomach.”
Though Sypher did not take the stand, Prosecutors played a never-before-seen TV broadcast in which Sypher accused Pitino of rape.
“All he said was shut up, shut up and be quiet,” Sypher said on the tape.
Despite the claim, witnesses in the restaurant that night described Sypher’s behaviour as “persistent and flirty,” while Pitino himself testified that the s*x was consensual and that she had come on to him, whispering in his ear before unzipping his pants. Police officials who first heard Sypher’s claim say that it lacked merit and Pitino was never charged.
On the other hand, the evidence against Sypher was overwhelming: the jury learned that Pitino had received three phone calls and two letters threatening the coach and demanding millions in hush money. One of the letters, written by Sypher herself, asked for cars, tuition for her children’s university and for her mortgage to be paid off.
"It was a hard decision,” said juror Charles Smith after the verdict had come down. “I mean we're human beings so we took it into consideration, but we made a decision based on the evidence provided."
Smith added that over the course of the two-day deliberation there was “never a huge deadlock” and that the three phone calls “played a key part” in their decision.
Sypher’s sentencing hearing will be held on October 27th. Though she remains free until that time, she could face up to 26 years in prison should the maximum sentence be given, but federal sentencing guidelines suggest that she will receive a lighter penalty.
"This was nothing more than a pure shakedown of Richard Pitino," Ford told reporters after the trial.
Neither Sypher nor her attorney James Earhart commented outside the courthouse, though Earhart insisted during the trial that his client had been “villainized” by the prosecution and that the government’s case proves that “the rules don’t apply to the privileged,” like Pitino.
Meanwhile, Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said that no punishments would be levelled against the coach by the university.
“(He has been) 100 per cent truthful,” Jurich told the press. “We don’t view anything as a win. I think it has been a long 17 months. There’s probably been a lot of damage done.”
Pitino has headed up the Cardinals since 2001, leading the Louisville program to six NCAA tournaments with two Elite Eight appearances and one trip to the Final Four. He has also coached Kentucky and Providence into the Final Four as well as spent time in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.
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