What do we take away from the sexual assault case against Walton? Maybe a little humility
That the sexual assault lawsuit filed against Kings coach Luke Walton has been dropped is not a surprise. That’s no reason for anyone to celebrate, or gloat about it either.
Sexual assaults and sexual harassment still happen in plain sight. They run the gamut from inappropriate comments to verbal abuse to unwanted physical contact to sex through coercion to rape and to many, many other abuses of power, agency and decency in between.
What we know in the Walton case is this: Kelli Tennant, a former Los Angeles broadcaster, accused Walton of assaulting her in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2014. She revealed these accusations in April of this year, after Walton had been fired as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and promptly hired by the Kings.
The Kings and the NBA hired a law firm to investigate the allegations. But in August, that law firm headed by Sacramento-based lawyer Sue Ann Van Demryden announced that it could not independently corroborate Tennant’s accusations. Tennant declined to cooperate with the Kings’ and NBA’s investigation.
We know Tennant claims that Walton groped her in an L.A. hotel room against her wishes. We know that when she was a broadcaster covering the Lakers, she claims that Walton hugged her inappropriately and made suggestive comments to her in public.
We know – or we should know – that these claims were serious because they spoke to an insidious power imbalance that often exists in sexual assault and sexual harassment cases. Namely, that Tennant was working in an L.A. sports industry where Walton, as the Lakers coach, had far more power then she.
These power imbalances were at the heart of sexual misconduct cases that brought down powerful broadcasters such as Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley.
We know that Walton’s lawyers acknowledged that he met with her in a Los Angeles hotel room, but noted that, “their encounter was very short, entirely pleasant and consensual.”
We can all read multiple meanings into those words but there is a difference between those words and “this never happened.” “Tennant’s attorney said in April that an apology from Walton would go a long way. Maybe she got what she wanted? We don’t know.
We don’t know if some private settlement was reached between Walton and Tennant. We may never know.
So where does that leave us?
Well, here is where it shouldn’t leave us: With knuckle-dragging sports fans crowing about “phony” allegations or “gold digging.” Or with people on the other side convicting Walton in absence of evidence.
Our reactions to these cases are still often polarized. We still swing wildly between dismissing the validity of claims made by women to concluding guilt when guilt was never clearly established.
I know this: Luke Walton seems like a man who was wounded and humbled by this situation. Walton and the Kings must be extremely relieved that this situation is now behind them. Tennant asked for the case to be dismissed. The judge complied “with prejudice” and now it’s over.
No other women have come forward to accuse Walton, as was the case with Lauer, Rose and Smiley.
These cases are real and unacceptable. Each and every one is different. The outcomes we should want is for people to be safe. That’s always the best outcome.
I would bet money that the Kings and Walton are far more attuned to the gravity of sexual assault and sexual harassment than they ever were before. We all should be.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 1:23 PM.
