Former NBA All-Star and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has found himself at a crossroads walked by many politicians before him. The 49-year-old popular politician recently announced he will not seek a third term as mayor, following a strong allegation from a 35-year-old woman who claims she was molested by Johnson back in 1996 when he was a starting point guard for the Phoenix Suns.
In a deposition video obtained by Deadspin, a 15-year-old Mandi Koba tells a Phoenix investigator that she began an illegal relationship with the star athlete where he told her not to tell anyone save for “a priest, a therapist or a lawyer.” She also was reportedly paid $230,600 in hush money.
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Koba’s recollections of what happened with Johnson, whom she met when she was 15, have been circulating for years in the form of a police report that includes a transcript of the questioning she was given by Detective Art Smith of the Phoenix Police Department in 1996. You can read that report in full here. In it, she describes Johnson lying naked with her, fondling her breasts and vagina, lathering soap on her in the shower, brushing his penis against her, and asking her to pray to God for forgiveness with him and promise not to tell anyone about what they’d done.
Despite the claims, Johnson is maintaining his innocence and simply concluded that such allegations “come with the territory” within the political atmosphere.
The breaking Kevin Johnson scandal has had more consequences than just the end of his mayoral reign. ESPN has put their documentary of the Sacramento Kings’ struggle to keep their NBA home on ice, indefinitely.
Koba’s videos can be see on the next page.
H/T: Bleacher Report
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Photo: WENN
