Is Sypher's Extortion of Rick Pitino Justified?

No

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by Troy Gardner

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It is a sordid story. Karen Sypher claims that 6 or so years ago, Rick Pitino sexually assaulted her and then paid for her abortion. Pitino, for his part, admits to having an affair with this woman, giving her the money, but alleges that it was entirely consensual and that the two discussed what to do when she discovered she was pregnant and came to the mutual agreement to get an abortion.

Now, morally, Rick Pitino is pretty much in the wrong. Whether it went down the way he said it did or the way she said it did, the fact remains that he cheated on his wife of then 27 years, now 33. Giving money to his mistress, whatever the intent, just screams of 'hush money.' He is an embarrassment to his university and a poster child for what is wrong with college sports. He should be fired from his job, his contract does contain a morality/embarrassme nt clause. However, he is successful, he can win games, that buys him immunity from having his employer take any type of action against him. That is wrong. He's caused huge embarrassment to the Louisville program and should, at the least, be suspended without pay for his acts.

However, extortion is a felony. No matter how much in the right Ms. Sypher may feel herself to be, it does not justify trying to extort ten million dollars out of Pitino. If what she said was true, then she was well within her rights to report the incident to the proper authorities and seek justice through the legal system. She would have been fully justified in suing Mr. Pitino for damages, perhaps even seeking ten million dollars that way. However, she did not. Instead she chose to attempt to extort this money out of him. That is how the whole thing came to light, Mr. Pitino reported the attempted extortion, thus triggering the he-said, she-said story we have today.

I don't know who's story is correct. I don't care. I find little pity for both sides of the story. However, it doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong. What matters is whether or not one wrong doing justifies the commission of a second. No, it doesn't. Two wrongs do not make a right. Especially when the first wrong is not technically criminal, just incredibly sleazy. Even if what Ms. Sypher claims is true, she was not justified to make an attempt to extort money out of Mr. Pitino.

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