Couple indicted for making an attempt to extort Georgia Tech

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted an Arizona couple for conspiring to extort cash from Georgia Tech by falsely accusing Yellow Jackets basketball coach Josh Pastner of sexual assault.

In response to the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Northern District of Georgia, Ronald Bell and co-defendant Jennifer Pendley had been indicted on felony fees of conspiracy to transmit a risk interstate, conspiracy to extort property from one other and tried extortion on Aug. 24.

“The defendants are alleged to have falsely accused Georgia Tech’s coach of sexual assault,” U.S. Legal professional Ryan Ok. Buchanan mentioned in an announcement. “They then demanded a big cost in change for a retraction of the declare. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and our different federal regulation enforcement companions are particularly proficient in exposing false allegations designed to extort cash. People who try and perpetrate such legal schemes on the expense of law-abiding residents shall be caught and prosecuted.”

In a movement filed to the courtroom on Friday, Buchanan requested a federal choose to not launch Bell on bond as a result of there’s a “severe danger that the defendant will flee” and a “severe danger that the defendant will threaten, injure, or intimidate a potential witness or juror, or try to take action.”

In response to the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Bell and Pendley allegedly conspired with one another and Chris Meegan, a Georgia Tech safety guard, to falsely accuse Pastner of sexual assault. The federal government accused Bell of recruiting Meegan to falsely declare that he witnessed Pastner assault Pendley, who later filed a lawsuit in opposition to Pastner during which she accused him of sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional misery.

The federal authorities claims Bell instructed Meegan that Pendley’s declare may very well be price $20 million and promised him a portion of the cash. The federal government alleges Bell additionally demanded cash from Georgia Tech representatives to not report Pendley’s allegations. Meegan later instructed regulation enforcement that he made up the allegations in opposition to Pastner and was inspired to take action by Bell.

An Arizona choose beforehand convicted Bell, a former buddy of Pastner’s, on six misdemeanor counts in July 2021: two counts of solicitation of influencing a witness, two counts of tried tampering with a witness, false data and facilitation of fraud, scheme and apply.

Pendley known as police on Could 8, 2019, and reported that Pastner sexually assaulted her in a Houston resort room whereas he was teaching at Memphis in 2016. Pendley’s name to police got here forward of mediation in a civil lawsuit associated to the accusation. A 2018 courtroom submitting by Pastner’s attorneys, Scott Tompsett and Scott Palumbo, included recorded jailhouse conversations that prompt the couple fabricated the allegations.

In January 2018, Pastner filed a civil go well with in opposition to Bell and Pendley in Superior Court docket in Pima County, Arizona, alleging they had been making an attempt to extort and blackmail him by threatening to launch false allegations about him to the media, Georgia Tech and the NCAA.

Bell and Pendley filed a countersuit in February 2018, alleging Pastner had sexually assaulted Pendley within the resort room and harassed her different instances. A Title IX investigation, performed by attorneys employed by Georgia Tech, cleared Pastner within the matter in June 2018.

The edges agreed to drop their lawsuits in August 2019.

In a November 2017 report by CBS Sports activities, Bell alleged Pastner offered Georgia Tech basketball gamers Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson with improper advantages by paying for them to fly to his residence in Tucson, Arizona, and paying for his or her meals at a restaurant in Atlanta. Bell additionally alleged he despatched the gamers footwear and shirts that he bought on-line.

After turning into conscious of Bell’s allegations in October 2017, Pastner mentioned he reported the violations to Georgia Tech’s compliance division. Tech officers self-reported the violations to the NCAA, and the varsity declared Okogie and Jackson ineligible for competitors firstly of the 2017-18 season. The NCAA suspended Okogie for six video games and Jackson for 3. In addition they required the gamers to repay the quantities of the advantages they acquired.

In September 2019, the NCAA positioned the Yellow Jackets on 4 years of probation and banned them from enjoying in postseason tournaments throughout the 2019-20 season. The committee on infractions dominated that Bell offered gamers with $2,424 in footwear, garments, meals, transportation and lodging.

An NCAA infractions appeals committee vacated a number of sanctions in opposition to Tech in February 2021.