Louisville coach Rick Pitino told police that he had consensual sex with and paid for an abortion for the woman who has been charged with trying to extort him, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Tuesday.
Karen Cunagin Sypher was federally charged in April with demanding cars, tuition for her children and finally $10 million. Police interviewed Pitino, who is married, regarding the incident last month, and according to the newspaper, he said that he gave the woman $3,000 to have an abortion.
Police records obtained by the Courier-Journal show that Pitino said he had sex with the then Karen Cunagin at a Louisville restaurant where he had been drinking on Aug. 1, 2003. He denied Cunagin Sypher’s allegations that he raped her at the restaurant and then again later at a different location.
A couple of weeks later, Cunagin Sypher called Pitino and told him she was pregnant.
They arranged to meet at the condominium of Louisville strength coach Tim Sypher, whom she did not know at that time but would later marry.
Sypher and Cunagin Sypher are now estranged and divorce proceedings have begun.
Regarding the alleged rape…
In one of her interviews, Cunagin Sypher did not disclose that there was a witness to the event at the restaurant, Vinnie Tatum, an executive assistant to Pitino. According to Abbott’s report, Tatum said he didn’t see what happened but heard “only the sounds of two people that seemed to be enjoying themselves during a sexual encounter.”
Pitino does not plan to take a leave of absence from coaching at Louisville.
