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A Clackamas County jury found former Portland Trail Blazer Ben McLemore guilty Thursday of raping and sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman in 2021.
McLemore, 32, was convicted in Clackamas County Circuit Court of Rape in the First Degree, Unlawful Sexual Penetration in the First Degree and Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree. He will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. on July 9.
"We recognize there are those who fear individuals with celebrity status or a position of prominence can avoid prosecution. Not in Clackamas County. This case demonstrates my office prosecutes criminal acts regardless of the offender's community status," said District Attorney John Wentworth.
The sexual assault occurred on October 3, 2021, after a party at the Lake Oswego home of Robert Covington, another former Trail Blazer. Covington and McLemore were teammates at the time.
The victim had been drinking heavily and was "hammered unconscious drunk" that night, prosecutor Scott Healy told jurors. It's the most alcohol the woman ever had to drink in her life and the most intoxicated she's ever been, Healy said.
The victim vomited earlier in the evening and witnesses said she had difficulty walking, slurred speech and could barely lift her head, Healy said.
The victim passed out on a large living room couch around 2 a.m. Sometime later McLemore later began sleeping on the same couch.
Around 6 a.m., the victim regained partial consciousness when McLemore sexually penetrated her with his fingers then began having sexual intercourse with her.
The victim was "fading in and out" of consciousness, frightened and traumatized, Healy said. Later that day she sought a specialized medical examination for victims of sexual assault.
"(The defendant) needs to be held accountable for what he did. You can't do that to somebody, let alone somebody that you don't know either. You don't do that to people and just be able to get away with it. I don't care who you are," the victim said during her trial testimony.
Defense attorneys for McLemore disputed the victim's account of events. They claimed she initiated sexual contact and consented to it.
McLemore's attorneys asserted that although the victim and McLemore were both intoxicated and at the time of the encounter, the victim was sober enough to consent.
Ben McLemore booking photo
First Assistant District Attorney Scott Healy and Deputy District Attorney Randi Hall prosecuted the case.
Clackamas County Circuit Court case 24CR10855