According to multiple reports, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino has admitted to the police that he had consensual sex with Karen Cunagin Sypher, not raping her as she claims, at a Louisville restaurant where he’d been drinking on Aug. 1, 2003. It is also being reported that he told police that he gave her $3,000 to have an abortion. Sypher has peaded not guilty after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to extort money from Pitino in exchange for her silence about the alleged crimes as well as lying to the FBI.
Later on this afternoon Pitino’s lawyer, Steve Spence, told ESPN that his client meant that he paid $3,000 for insurance, not abortion. “The way this has been reported in the media is not accurate,” Pence told The Associated Press. “The coach has not done anything illegal.” New reports state that Sypher told Pitino she was going to have an abortion but didn’t have any health insurance, so he gave her the $3,000. The Louisville Courier-Journal has made Pitino’s contract public, including its “Termination for Just Cause,” section (page 8, section 6) that includes a morality clause, which allows for him to be fired for acts of “moral depravity.” University of Louisville president James Ramsey and athletic director Tom Jurich have made it clear thus far that they stand by Pitino and his family. Pitino is expected to make a comment at 6:30 P.M.
