LEX18.com - Lexington, KY

Posted: Jul 30, 2010 12:36 PM
Updated: Jul 30, 2010 1:29 PM

LOUISVILLE (AP) - A longtime aide to Rick Pitino told jurors Friday that the Louisville men's basketball coach asked him to take a woman out of town for medical services after she said the coach got her pregnant during a one-night tryst at a restaurant.
     
The aide, Tim Sypher, testified that Pitino did not mention taking Karen Cunagin Sypher to get an abortion. Tim Sypher, 49, said he called clinics in Indiana and Ohio before taking Karen Sypher to Cincinnati, where she terminated the pregnancy on Aug. 29, 2003.
     
Tim Sypher testified that he paid for the procedure from $3,000 Pitino gave for medical insurance.
     
Karen Cunagin Sypher, 50, has pleaded not guilty to extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliating against a witness. Prosecutors say she demanded money, cars and a house from Pitino to keep secret their tryst in August 2003 at Porcini, an Italian restaurant in Louisville. She also has claimed Pitino raped her that night, but he has not been charged.
     
Tim and Karen Sypher, now divorced, married less than a year after the abortion. Karen Sypher pocketed the rest of the $3,000.
     
Tim Sypher told jurors on Thursday that he drove her to the appointment and the trip started a romance, he said.
     
"We hugged," he said. "I walked out the door and she said, 'Is that it?"'
     
Tim Sypher and other witnesses said he and his ex-wife went to Louisville functions with Pitino, including a holiday party at the restaurant where the coach and the ex-model had sex.
     
"She was very friendly with everyone," Tim Sypher said. "No problems."
     
By 2007, Tim Sypher said, finances were tight and the marriage was falling apart. Attorney Dana Kolter of Louisville sent Tim Sypher a letter on behalf of Karen Sypher asking for a separation. That's the first time Karen mentioned the rape allegation, he said.
     
"All of the sudden she started using the 'rape' word. It just came out of the blue," Tim Sypher said.
     
Over the next two years, Karen Sypher was "wishy washy" about the marriage - at times hugging and kissing her husband, at other times exploding when Pitino called for something work related, Tim Sypher said. All the while, the rape allegation would pop up periodically, Tim Sypher said.
     
When Pitino received threatening phone calls in February 2009, Tim Sypher said the coach sent him a text message asking him to bring Karen Sypher to the basketball practice facility immediately.
     
Tim Sypher arranged three meetings between the coach and Karen Sypher over the next two days. During those, Pitino and Tim Sypher testified, Karen Sypher said she didn't know who made the calls and started demanding money and cars.
     
On March 6, Karen Sypher had a letter delivered to Tim Sypher, with instructions to forward it to Pitino. Tim Sypher said he gave the coach the letter the night before a game against West Virginia.
     
"I really didn't know what was in there. I don't know," Tim Sypher said. "She's nuts."
     
The letter, shown to jurors, included a list of seven items Karen Sypher demanded, with the promise that "If all is accepted, I will protect Rick Pitino's name for life."
     
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)