According to an official police report and transcript obtained by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nigel Jaquiss of Williamette Weekly, late on the night of April 22, 2011 at The Barrel Room nightclub in Old Town, Portland, a woman approached Cuban to take a photo. She later alleged Cuban sexually assaulted her during their impromptu photoshoot. The sensitive details of her allegation can be found in Jaquiss’s piece.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban denies 2011 sexual assault claim
A report surfaced Tuesday that Cuban was accused of sexual assault in a Portland bar in 2011.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
On Wednesday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban denied the accusation of sexual assault in a Portland bar back in 2011. “It didn’t happen,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The woman, who remains anonymous, has left the incident in the past but stands by her initial account, offering up the following quote on Tuesday to the Williamette Weekly:
“I filed the report because what he did was wrong,” she said. “I stand behind that report 1,000 percent.”
Cuban’s lawyer, Stephen Houze, categorically denied the accusation in a statement to Williamette Weekly:
“These allegations are thoroughly investigated by the Multnomah County District’s Attorney’s Office and the Portland Police Bureau,” Houze said in the statement. “According to the detailed prosecution decline memo, investigators interviewed the complainant’s boyfriend and female friend, as well as employees and patrons of the bar, and other persons with Mr. Cuban and no one observed any inappropriate behavior by Mr. Cuban.
”This incident never happened and her accusations are false.”
In 2011, The District Attorney’s office determined there wasn’t enough evidence to press criminal charges.
“The case detective and the complainant both agree with the conclusion there is no corroborative evidence to support the complainant’s allegation,” wrote senior deputy DA Don Rees on July 27, 2011, via Williamette Weekly.
”Because all leads have been exhausted and there remains a lack of physical or substantial circumstantial evidence,” Portland Police Detective Brendan McGuire wrote July 28, 2011, “I recommend the case be suspended.”
The police report details photos of Cuban and the accuser, and the detective described the photo quality as “not good enough to” see Cuban’s hands. But McGuire did say, “There are two pictures that do appear to have your shoulder dipping and your arm sort of, if you follow the direction of it, down below her waist.”
Cuban’s response in 2011: “’Cause I always make a point to show my ring finger whenever I take pictures with girls. My left hand.”
In one of those pictures, McGuire describes the accuser as: “Her teeth are clenched, eyes wider than the other pictures and brow raised showing a look of surprise and strain.”
The Williamette Weekly investigative report comes weeks after the Mavericks organization was flipped onto its head after multiple cases of in-house sexual assault were uncovered in a Sports Illustrated investigation. The investigation revealed that former Mavs CEO Terdema Ussery frequently made sexual advances toward female coworkers, and that Mavs.com beat writer Earl K. Sneed was arrested and charged with domestic assault in 2011. Human Resources director Buddy Pittman was also fired in the wake of the investigation.
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