An Oro Valley couple has filed a counterclaim against the Georgia Institute of Technology basketball coach, claiming sexual assault and sexual battery.
Georgia Tech men's basketball Coach Josh Pastner filed a civil suit against Ronald Bell and Jennifer Pendley. The lawsuit claims that former team boosters Bell and Pendley attempted to extort and blackmail him.
On Thursday, the defendants answered that civil suit and filed a counterclaim against the coach. In the counterclaim, Pendley claims that Coach Pastner sexually assaulted her on February 9th, 2016.
The counterclaim claims the incident happened in Houston, Texas at a hotel. It says Pendley and Bell were staying in the Hilton Americas Hotel downtown to support the University of Memphis men's basketball team, where Pastner was the head coach at the time. It claims Pastner sexually assaulted Pendley and threatened her, if she were to tell anyone about what happened.
The counterclaim goes on to say that there were 11 alleged occasions where Pastner sexually harassed Pendley between February 14, 2016 and March 3, 2016. It also claims that Pendley repeatedly told Pastner to stop throughout this time.
In response to the counterclaim, Scott Tompsett, Pastner's attorney says "There was no sexual assault. It is a lie. Josh never acted improperly with Ms. Pendley. Never."
Tompsett says, "Mr. Bell and Ms. Pendley began alleging assualt only after their two-month long scheme to blackmail Josh by claiming he knowingly participated in NCAA violations failed. Their false claims of assault are a last-ditch effort to continue an extortion and blackmail scheme that failed." He goes on to say, "Our complaint shows that Mr. Bell is a career criminal with multiple felony arrests and convictions, and a long history of dishonest and antisocial behavior."
If you want to read the full statement from Tompsett, click here.
