Ray Allen claims he was 'catfished,' asks court to dismiss stalking claim
Retired 10-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen asked a Florida court Tuesday to throw out a case in which he stands accused of stalking, claiming that he’d been “catfished” by a man he met online but has never physically encountered.
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From the Associated Press:
Allen filed an emergency motion in Orange County, Florida, on Tuesday, one day after Bryant Coleman told the court he is being stalked by the 10-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion.
Allen said Coleman is the one who is stalking.
“Coleman pretended to be a number of attractive women interested in Ray Allen,” read the motion filed on Allen’s behalf. “Ray believed he was speaking with these women and communicated with them.”
Allen’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, issued a statement on his client’s behalf claiming that the two-time NBA champion “was the victim of an online scheme to extract money and embarrass him by someone who appears to be troubled,” and who has made various threats “against Ray and his family.”
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According to court documents obtained by TMZ Sports, Allen “claims he met these ‘women’ in ‘various online forums’ and communicated with them … sometimes sharing ‘private information.'” Allen claims in the filing that he later “got [Coleman] to sign a confidentiality agreement in which he agreed to stop posting about Ray — but [Coleman] violated the deal” by visiting Allen’s wife’s restaurant in Orlando and posting items to social media in which he tagged Allen and his family members.
“Ray has taken legal action to put an end to the threats and to expose his manipulation and wrongdoing,” Markus wrote in the statement. “Ray regrets ever engaging with this person online and is thankful they never met in person. The experience has negatively impacted Ray, and he hopes that others might use his mistake to learn from the dangers of communicating online with strangers.”
Allen, 42, is the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-point field goals and attempts, making 2,973 triples in 7,429 tries over the course of an 18-year career spent with the Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. He last played in the NBA for the Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals, never making a comeback despite many rumored potential returns to the court.
He officially retired just over one year ago.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
