The Portland Trail Blazers reportedly commissioned an FBI investigator to look into the Chauncey Billups sexual assault allegations.
“A source says the team commissioned a former FBI investigator to retrace the case,” wrote Jason Quick of The Athletic. “Witnesses were re-interviewed. Tapes of past interviews were watched. Billups, in his interviews with the team, was questioned about the particulars. [Neil] Olshey, however, told the press conference — which was being broadcast live by a Portland television station — that the details of who did the investigation and what they found was ‘proprietary’ information. ‘You are just going to have to take us at our word that we hired an experienced firm who ran an investigation that gave us the results that we’ve already discussed.’
“In the end, Olshey said the findings showed ‘that nothing non-consensual happened and nothing would disqualify him from employment.'”
Portland’s recent hire of Billups as the organization’s next head coach has raised concerns about his sexual assault allegation from 1997. The team seemed to dodge questions about the incident during a news conference on Tuesday.
The 1997 allegation claimed that Ron Mercer, Michael Irvin and Billups raped the victim at Antoine Walker’s home. No charges were filed.
Billups played 17 seasons in the NBA and the allegation rarely came up. He averaged 15.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game. He was named an All-Star five times and won a title in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons.
