A woman who accused Sacramento Kings Coach Luke Walton of sexual assault has dropped her lawsuit.
The request for dismissal, filed on Tuesday in Superior Court in Los Angeles, was first reported by TMZ.
After the woman, Kelli Tennant, filed the suit in April, the N.B.A. and the Kings announced an investigation by a Sacramento law firm. In August they closed that probe, finding “there was not a sufficient basis to support the allegations.” Ms. Tennant declined to participate in that investigation. There was no criminal case against Mr. Walton.
In the lawsuit, Ms. Tennant said that Mr. Walton had pinned her to a bed and forcibly kissed and groped her in a hotel room in 2014, while he was working as an assistant for the Golden State Warriors. She said she told him to stop, but he laughed at her before eventually releasing her.
Ms. Tennant was formerly a host for Spectrum SportsNet, a Southern California sports network. She said she did not come forward earlier because she feared it might hurt her career. Ms. Tennant said she had considered Mr. Walton a mentor, and he wrote the foreword to her book about athletes transitioning to life after sports.
Mr. Walton denied Ms. Tennant’s claims at the time. His lawyer called her an “opportunist, not a victim.”
On Thursday, Mr. Walton said in a statement, “I remain 100 percent focused on coaching the Kings and will have no further comment.”
His lawyer, Mark D. Baute, said, “I can confirm we received the dismissal, and it’s nice to see that it was voluntarily and permanently dismissed by the claimant.”
Mr. Walton is the son of the N.B.A. legend Bill Walton, and played for 10 seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers before becoming head coach of the Lakers and now Kings.
Kevin Draper contributed reporting.
Source: Basketball - nytimes.com
