LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A woman described in detail to a Louisville television station what she says was the night University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino raped her in a video played for jurors at her extortion trial.
In the hour-long edited video played Tuesday morning, Karen Cunagin Sypher told WDRB-TV that Pitino sexually assaulted her in July 2003 after closing time at Porcini (pohr-chee'-nee), an Italian restaurant in Louisville.
The interview was done in April 2009, three months before Sypher filed a police report accusing Pitino of rape. Prosecutors dismissed the complaint.
Federal prosecutors say the rape allegation was filed and made public by Sypher in retaliation for Pitino contacting the FBI about threatening phone calls he received in February 2009.
Sypher is in the second day of her trial in U.S. District Court in Louisville, charged with extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliating against a witness.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
