The Worm may pinch himself in disbelief.
Just when NBA spectacle Dennis Rodman thought he was off the hook for grabbing and pinching a woman's buttocks in the Delta Center in 1994, he's back on. A suit the woman filed was dismissed, but now the dismissal is being appealed.The victim, Delta Center usher Lavon P. Ankers, was standing in her assigned spot beside the basketball court on May 5, 1994, when the Utah Jazz played the San Antonio Spurs. At the start of the fourth quarter, Rodman ran off the court after a loose ball. Returning to the game, he walked past Ankers, put his hands on her buttocks and pinched her.
The pinch was in full view of a local and national television audience and Rodman's then-girlfriend, Madonna. Court documents said the TV didn't show the actual touch but Rodman coming up behind Ankers and her reaction to the touch.
Ankers filed suit on Aug. 16, 1996, claiming battery and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. But on Feb. 28, U.S. District Judge David Sam dismissed the suit, saying that under Utah Supreme Court standards the burden of proving outrageous conduct is heavy and could be applied only where conduct is "atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community."
For Ankers to prevail, he said, he would have to demonstrate that Rodman's action would cause an average person in the community to exclaim, "Outrageous." Several women's organizations reacted angrily to the decision.
That wasn't the end of the controversy.
On Thursday, Ankers appealed Sam's ruling to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Harry Caston, Ankers' lawyer, simply noted that she "hereby appeals" to the circuit court.