Sportscaster Kelli Tennant filed a lawsuit against Luke Walton in Los Angeles Superior Court, and the Sacramento Kings and the NBA joined forces to investigate the accusations. The problem is that Tennant’s lawsuit came almost five years after the alleged assault, and Walton believes she only wants to attract media attention, nothing more.
Tennant stated that Walton attacked her in 2014 when he worked as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, but back then, she was too afraid to file charges. However, it seems that she is not scared now, which is somewhat contradicting.
According to Tennant, Walton was a longtime friend of hers and mentor who helped in writing her book. When Luke was on a road trip to Los Angeles with the Warriors, the two of them met in the lobby of a Santa Monica hotel and then Walton invited her to his room. They spoke about the book, and Luke allegedly grabbed her.
“Out of nowhere, he got on top of me and pinned me down to the bed and held my arms down with all of his weight while he kissed my neck and my face and my chest,” Tennant said at an April news conference, adding that when she asked him to get off, “he laughed at me.”
Garo Mardirossian, Tennant’s attorney, said that it is unlikely police will put together a criminal case. On the other hand, Mark Baute, Walton’s lawyer, called Tennant “an opportunist, not a victim.”
Opposite to Tennant’s story, Walton said that he is not her mentor and that he did not help with her book; they only worked together at Spectrum Sports at the same time for a brief period.
Luke Walton Breaks His Silence; Explains Why Woman Accusing Him of Sexual Assault Is Lying and Gives His Version of Events of What Happened (Video) https://t.co/dAAuxIj5wD pic.twitter.com/dt5uF0ysSr
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) July 6, 2019
The court filing says Tennant waited too long beyond the statute of limitations to come up with these allegations and that she has no basis for asking for monetary compensation from Walton because she left her job at Spectrum Sports for reasons unrelated to Walton.
Now, Walton is preparing a countersuit, and he will be seeking for the lawsuit to be dropped and Tennant to pay not only his costs but also attorneys’ fee. This story is far from being over.
