Judge Sets Date For Pitino, Sypher Trial

Rick Pitino, Karen Sypher trial can start now that basketball is done

By Andrew Wolfson • awolfson@courier-journal.com • March 22, 2010

With the University of Louisville men’s basketball season over, the trial of Karen Cunagin Sypher can now begin.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III has set a June trial date for the woman accused of trying to extort money from men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino.

In an order issued Monday, Simpson scheduled the trial to start June 1 and docketed it to last nine days.

He gave both sides until May 3 to file trial memoranda on the laws and legal issues that may be involved.

Jury selection is scheduled for May 19-20. National media coverage is expected to be so intense that the court announced a “media liaison” — Vanessa Armstrong, the chief deputy clerk — who has been given her own toll-free number.

Sypher’s appointed lawyer, James Earhart, said his client is looking forward to the trial. He said he doesn’t expect the charges can be resolved through a plea bargain.

Sypher, the estranged wife of the team’s equipment manager, is charged in a six-count indictment with trying to extort money and cars from Pitino in exchange for her silence on allegations that they had sex in 2003 at a Louisville restaurant.

She is also accused of lying to the FBI, and with another count of extortion for allegedly having her divorce lawyer, Dana Kolter, send a letter to Pitino demanding $10 million in exchange for her silence “on allegations of a criminal nature.”

Sypher has pleaded not guilty.

Pitino has admitted that he had sex at a Louisville restaurant with Sypher one time in 2003 and that he paid her money so she could buy health insurance because she said she couldn’t afford an abortion.

But he has denied her allegations that he raped her, and Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel decided against prosecuting the case, saying her claims were "void of credibility."

The charges against Sypher, a former saleswoman, carry combined potential prison sentences of up to 26 years and a fine of up to $1.5 million. She has been free on her own recognizance on the condition that she make no statements damaging to Pitino’s reputation.

Simpson, a graduate of U of L and its law school, had not issued any orders in the case for three months before he set a trial date.

The Cardinal’s season ended Friday night when it lost to University of California in the NCAA Tournament.