FRESNO, Calif. — Utah Jazz guard DeShawn Stevenson admitted having sex with a 14-year-old girl in a recorded telephone conversation with the girl's mother, according to court records.
The 20-year-old Stevenson, a 6-5 guard who went from high school directly to the NBA last year, was arrested Tuesday night on statutory rape charges and released on $5,000 bail after voluntarily turning himself in to police.
Stevenson is charged along with a former high school teammate, DeShawn Anderson, 19, in the incident that allegedly happened June 6 in a Howard Johnson motel. A hearing date was set for July 6 in Fresno's municipal court.
Anderson played briefly at Salt Lake Community College last season.
The girl, who was not named because of her age and the nature of the charges, told police the two basketball players and another former teammate took her and a 15-year-old girlfriend to the motel after buying a large bottle of E&J Brandy.
At the motel, a Fresno Police Department report said, Stevenson checked in using his credit card — but put Anderson's name on the register.
According to the police report, both girls said they got drunk willingly on brandy and coke served by Stevenson. The 14-year-old said she had consensual sex with Stevenson and later vomited and passed out. The 15-year-old said she had consensual sex with Anderson. Both couples had sex while a former high school teammate of the suspects, Richard Millsap, watched.
Everyone left the motel together early on the morning of June 6 and the girls were dropped off at the 15-year-old's house. The 14-year-old's mother, who was worried because her daughter was late, found her at her friend's house and picked her up. The mother called police after her daughter told her what had happened.
The mother later confronted Stevenson in a telephone conversation that was recorded, the police report said. In that conversation, the police report said, Stevenson admitted he had sex with the woman's daughter and said Anderson had sex with the other girl. Stevenson also admitted providing the booze.
The 14-year-old and her family have known the two suspects for four years.
Stevenson, a Fresno native who went to Washington Union H.S. in nearby Easton, faces up to three years in state prison if convicted.
At a news conference Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Jazz officials said they didn't know enough about the case to take action. Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said nobody in the organization has spoken with Stevenson.
"Should he have been in a position that supposedly he was in? No. Do we know what that position was? No. So to support him or to say he was wrong, I don't want to say either one until we know more," O'Connor said.
Stevenson's agent, Rob Pelinka, would not comment. Stevenson's lawyer, Richard Berman, did not immediately return several messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Stevenson played in 40 games for the Jazz as a rookie, averaging 2.2 points and 0.7 rebounds. He was placed on the injured list March 2 with tendinitis in his right knee and was reactivated April 11.
This is the second time Stevenson has run into legal trouble in Fresno since he was drafted in the first round by Utah last year, the 23rd pick overall.
On the night he was drafted, Stevenson was involved in a brawl at a high school all-star basketball game in neighboring Clovis.
Stevenson, who did not play in the June 28 game, said he was jumped by five men after signing autographs. He pleaded innocent to charges of fighting in a public place.
Stevenson is scheduled to be in a Fresno courtroom Monday for a criminal trial stemming from the fight.