Former Prosecutor Insists Chauncey Billups Is Innocent of Sexual Assault
The prosecutor who oversaw a 1997 rape allegation against Chauncey Billups insists the Trail Blazers' coach is innocent.
Former Middlesex County district attorney Thomas J. Reilly told Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian that while his office believed at the time that Jane Doe was "definitely" raped, his investigation led him to believe that any sexual contact between Billups and his accuser was consensual.
“What I can tell you is that regarding the incident, or interaction between [Billups] and the woman that was involved, we did investigate that, and it was a very thorough and very comprehensive investigation,” Reilly said. “We did interview the woman involved on at least one occasion, if not multiple occasions, and it was very clear that any acts between he and the woman were consensual. That was it.”
Billups nor any of the other men accused by Doe were ever charged with a crime.
Among discrepancies in retellings of the night in question is whether or not Billups and Ron Mercer went back to the home of Boston Celtics teammate Antoine Walker with Doe and another man after the group took in a comedy show. Billups insists he wasn't at Walker's house that night and sex acts that took place in his car were consensual. Doe has always maintained that she was raped by Billups and two other men at the home of Walker, with whom she had an existing romantic relationship.
Reilly first went public with his perception of Billups' innocence in OPB's reporting last month on the Blazers' internal investigation into the allegations. Responding to continued questions on the matter from OPB reporters Conrad Wilson and Tony Schick, Reilly—elected attorney general of Massachusetts about a year after the night in question— expressed frustration about what he believed was undue new attention on the accusations against Billups.
He took a similar approach with his remarks to The Oregonian, casting doubt on Doe's credibility despite her lawyer recently telling OPB they "stand by" the allegations.
“Until this media-created spectacle, there was never any question about it for 24 years,” Reilly said. “There was no question about it when it happened.”
[Aaron Fentress, The Oregonian]