A Salt Lake woman says she was drugged and awoke in the hotel room of a Washington Wizards basketball player to find a man raping her, according to a Salt Lake City police report.
The report, obtained Wednesday by the Deseret News under a Government Records Access and Management Act request, revealed new details regarding the alleged Feb. 14 incident involving Wizards forward/center Jahidi White.
The woman, 24, told police she was in a hotel room at the Grand America with White and others when she passed out on a bed, according to the police report. The woman was awakened when "she felt her head hit the head board of the bed." She was naked and lying on her stomach and a man was "having intercourse with her," the report stated.
White, 27, has not been charged with a crime and was not taken into custody, arrested or booked into jail after the victim reported she had been raped, Salt Lake police detective Dwayne Baird said.
"Jahidi White has not been interviewed by our detectives," Baird said. "We put in a request to his attorney and have not heard back."
White's Salt Lake attorney, Ron Yengich, did not immediately return a call to his office Wednesday morning seeking comment.
The alleged incident began when the woman and some friends met White and another Wizards player Feb. 13 about 10 p.m. at Southern Exposure, 5142 S. State. The players asked the women if they wanted to go to the Manhattan Club, 5 E. 400 South, the report stated. A friend of the victim who was with the women at Southern Exposure told the Deseret News the women were told they could meet NBA All-Star Michael Jordan if they went to the Manhattan Club.
At the Manhattan Club the victim drank one beer and three to four "Red Bull vodkas," the report stated. White ordered the woman's last drink while she was in the rest room and soon after, she started feeling "exceptionally dizzy and sick," the report stated. The woman later told investigators she thought she'd been drugged because she was an "experienced drinker" and had never become dizzy and sick from alcohol.
White and an underage player invited the group of women to an after-hours party at the Grand America Hotel.
After arriving at the hotel, White asked the women and his teammate to go to his room to "get drinks to take to the party." When the group reached White's room, the victim felt increasingly sick, sat down in a chair and "felt like she couldn't move," the report stated.
The woman then laid down on a bed and passed out, the report stated.
When the victim awoke she asked the man to stop raping her. He ignored her requests, the report stated.
After the incident, the woman put on one of White's sweatshirts, the report stated. On her way out of the room, she grabbed a luggage tag from one of White's suitcases and left the hotel with a friend.
The woman continued to go in and out of consciousness "throughout the evening," and went to Cottonwood Hospital later in the day to report the incident, the report stated. Police found a gold key in the woman's pants pocket, which belonged to the Grand America, the report stated. The woman also told police the room number at the hotel where the alleged rape occurred. Detectives later confirmed White had been staying in that room. Police also recovered the luggage tag and sweat shirt.
Investigators are now awaiting test results from a rape examination from the Utah State Crime Lab.
Messages left with the Washington Wizards organization were not immediately returned Wednesday morning.
When news of the alleged incident first broke, the Wizards released a statement saying, "We are aware of the allegations. The organization has spoken with the player in question and believe that the allegations have no merit."
White did not play in the Wizards' Feb. 14, 109-77 loss to the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center. White — a 6-foot-9, 290-pound, second-round draft pick out of Georgetown University — is in his fifth season with the Wizards. The Wizards previously confirmed the player is on injured reserve and that the team did stay at the Grand America Hotel.
This is not the first time sexual abuse allegations have been made against an NBA player visiting Utah. In 1993, four Portland Trail Blazers were accused of sexual misconduct while in Salt Lake City for having sex with two 16-year-old girls in their room at the Marriott Hotel.
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com