July 6, 2001--
(Fresno, California-AP) -- Utah Jazz rookie DeShawn Stevenson pleaded innocent Friday to the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl.
The girl told police that the 20-year-old Stevenson and two other men took her and a 15-year-old friend to a motel on June 6th.
There, she says, Stevenson and 19-year-old DeShawn Anderson gave the two girls alcohol and had consensual sex with them.
Stevenson, a 6-foot-5 backup guard who went into the NBA straight from high school, faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Anderson also pleaded innocent. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 30th.
Court records say the 14-year-old girl told her mother what happened, and Stevenson admitted to the mother in a tape-recorded telephone call that he had sex with her daughter and implicated his friend.
Both girls told police they got drunk willingly. The 14-year-old girl said she had consensual sex with Stevenson. The 15-year-old said she had consensual sex with Anderson.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 07-06-01 1249MDT
