LOTA Redux

The saga of the lady of the afternoon (hereinafter referred to as LOTA) is on again after having been interdicted by LOTA herself. Readers of MUCKRAKER of June 20 or the Lexington Herald-Leader may remember the details. If not, that article is in the Archives for perusal and may even be interesting to those who haven’t been aware of this strange happening. The other player in the affair is a god of the hardwood (hereinafter referred to as GOTH, naturally, with all the potential meaning involved), who dallied with LOTA on an April afternoon in a university dormitory housing mostly the august and much revered basketball players. She called the hanky panky rape some 24-36 hours after the fact, while GOTH called it consensual – through his lawyer, of course. Later after making her charge, she stopped cooperating, so, without a victim, the matter was ended. GOTH, a high-profile player, was named, of course, especially in Sports Pages all over the land, but LOTA, a 29-year-old mom, was spared that notoriety, at least in the city of its circumstances, the better to protect her good name, even though the local daily knew it early on and actually contacted the woman a few times, even to the point of writing her a letter.

It has already been determined that GOTH’s coach was contacted by the police chief, not unusual in high-profile cases, according to the chief, and anything having to do with a UK basketball player is so high-profile that mere things like terrorist attacks pale into insignificance by comparison. According to the Herald-Leader of July 8, the university president didn’t know the coach had been involved in conversations with LOTA, according to a spokesman for the prexy. The plot thickens. According to the H-L, LOTA told the paper that she and her attorney had been involved in – negotiations – with GOTH, GOTH’s attorney, and the coach.

NEGOTIATIONS??? Precisely how does a rape victim and her attorney negotiate with her attacker and her attacker’s coach and her attacker’s attorney? If a crime has been committed – and now the lady has turned in a formal complaint – who’s supposed to negotiate what and with what and with whom – if anyone? Seems the “negotiations” ended when it was determined that LOTA didn’t have the “date rape” drug in her system, though she had complained about strange stuff she ingested on that afternoon. LOTA told the paper she did not want money from the player (probably a dry well there, anyway – no Kobe Bryant deep pockets), but that she asked the coach and GOTH for increased security at the dormitory and counseling for GOTH, and that GOTH’s representatives (presumably the coach and GOTH’s lawyer) were agreeable. Does that mean a rape charge was traded for two things that amounted to nothing? In any case, GOTH has been out in California sweating out the NBA draft since then, but may be somewhere else now.

Now, LOTA has new attorneys. Why does a rape victim need attorneys? Isn’t it the job of the local commonwealth’s attorney to prosecute rape cases? She has produced for the paper records showing she had other drugs in her system, ingested unknowingly by her, of course, on that fateful afternoon. This apparently is the new evidence upon which the case can be restarted. GOTH’s attorney provided LOTA proof that GOTH is not HIV-positive…at least one bright spot in this quagmire. So…the case is in the hands of the county attorney, and the prosecutors will try to sort things out. This won’t be easy, since, as the H-L reported on July 10, LOTA has a history of drug use, at one time had problems with an estranged boyfriend, the father of her daughter, and statements have been made to police by a man who said LOTA was smoking marijuana the evening before the April afternoon.

The university prexy found out about the whole mess from the athletic director on the day the story broke back in April. What happened during the eight days between the event and the reporting of it? Negotiations? So, who told the athletic director…and when? At present, both the prexy and the AD are out of town, and one is left wondering exactly what has happened and when…if anybody cares to say anything. The coach apparently doesn’t respond to the newspaper’s calls. Keep listening. This is cruder than any soap opera.

The whole mess represents tragedy for everyone involved, as well as the university, which, because of the well-publicized peccadilloes of a number of its athletes for decades, has had enough grief. LOTA has lawyers, so is she thinking of, by either going the court-system route (civil action) or the possibly consequent easier way of negotiations, sweating some cash out of the university? A rape conviction was not necessary in the Kobe Bryant case in order for the alleged victim to effect an out-of-court settlement with Bryant, but O.J. Simpson lost the civil case after being acquitted in the criminal action. Where does all this leave the university president and the athletic director (better than a half-a-million-a-year guy) and the coach (never mind the inflated 7-figure income statistics for him in Kentucky, where basketball trumps everything and the coach is considered just next to Michael the Archangel)?

And so it goes.

Jim Clark