Saturday, August 7, 2010

Karen Cunagin Sypher Convicted of Extortion

The Accused and The Accuser. (HT Fox News)



In a follow up to the earlier post, Buy Her A Drink, Get Slapped With Sexual Assault, Karen Cunagin Sypher, 50, of Louisville, was found guilty of three counts of extortion, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of retaliating against a witness. More from Fox News:

"Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kuhn called it a very difficult trial for the prosecutors, Pitino and the community.

A University of Louisville spokesman said the coach was traveling and referred calls to Pitino attorney Steve Pence, who said the jury did the right thing.

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said Pitino has been "100 percent truthful" and will not be disciplined.

"We don't view anything as a win," Jurich said. "I think this has been a long 17 months. There's probably been a lot of damage done."

Jury foreman Glen Elder told The Associated Press the panel went through the charges line by line and there were no disagreements during about five hours of deliberations over two days.

Juror Charles Smith said there "was never a huge deadlock" and the tapes of the three extortion calls "were key, they played a major part" in their decision.

"It was a hard decision, I mean we're human beings so we took it into consideration, but we made a decision based on the evidence provided," Smith said. "We did the defense justice by deliberating, we didn't go in and just look at it one-sided."

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 26 years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines, the penalty will likely be lighter. She will remain free until her sentencing Oct. 27."

Where Sypher went wrong was lying to the FBI. You get caught doing that and your fate is pretty much sealed. The lesson here is if you're an affluent man don't put yourself in a position to get extorted. If you do, document everything, and use technology in your favor.

Background Intel:

Fox News: Ky. woman guilty of extortion after she demanded millions from coach Pitino to keep sex secret

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