A timeline of Kelli Tennant’s sex assault lawsuit against Kings coach Luke Walton
The sexual assault lawsuit against Sacramento Kings coach Luke Walton was dropped this week, nearly eight months after sports reporter Kelli Tennant first brought her allegations to the court and the public light.
Tennant, 31, had accused Walton, 39, of sexual battery and a pattern of sexual misconduct that she said dated back to an alleged 2014 assault at a Santa Monica hotel room, when Walton was an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, and continued when he was hired as Lakers head coach in April 2016. Tennant formerly worked as a reporter for Spectrum Sportsnet Los Angeles.
The civil lawsuit was dismissed in Los Angeles Superior Court “with prejudice” this week at the request of Tennant’s attorneys, meaning she cannot re-file the suit. It was not known whether a settlement was reached between the parties.
Here is a timeline of Tennant’s allegations of sexual assault and misconduct by Walton, as well as the legal actions and reviews by the NBA that occurred this year.
2014: Alleged assault at Santa Monica hotel
In a 19-page complaint filed this April, Tennant accused Walton of sexually attacking her in his hotel room at the Case Del Mar Hotel in Santa Monica sometime in late 2014.
Walton was an assistant coach with the Warriors at the time. The two had briefly worked together at Spectrum Sportsnet.
Tennant had alleged that Walton pinned her to the bed with his body. She alleged that she resisted and pleaded for him to stop, which he did, and she left.
Tennant said during a press conference this year, “I thought (Walton) was going to rape me.” She said she did not report the alleged incident at the time to police or her employer because she was scared, and that it took years to muster up the courage to talk about it openly.
2016: Lakers hire Walton; misconduct resumes, Tennant alleges
Walton began his tenure as Lakers head coach in April 2016.
In the lawsuit and during Tennant’s first public press conference acknowledging her allegations, the former Los Angeles TV reporter alleged that Walton kissed her, hugged her, and made lewd noises and inappropriate comments to her during a number of other encounters during his tenure as Lakers coach.
At the press conference, she described a 2017 charity event she co-hosted in which Walton was the honored guest. She alleged that Walton looked her up and down, then told her, “You’re killing me in that dress.”
“I had to talk about how amazing he was for an hour (on stage) and it literally killed me inside,” she said at the time.
April 13, 2019: Kings hire Walton
The Kings finalized a deal to hire Walton as head coach, barely 24 hours after Walton parted ways with the Lakers and just two days after Sacramento ousted former head coach Dave Joerger.
After meeting with GM Vlade Divac, the Kings brought on Walton in a four-year deal.
April 22: Tennant files lawsuit
The complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on April 22 charged Walton with sexual battery, gender violence, and violation of the Ralph Act, which protects against threats of violence, sexual assault, battery and assault.
In the days following its filing, Walton hired LA attorney Mark Baute, who accused Tennant of being “an opportunist, not a victim,” and called the claims baseless.
Tennant’s attorney, Garo Mardirossian, said the intent was not to have Walton jailed but to let a jury trial decide damages. A civil trial was tentatively set for late 2020.
Within two days of the civil lawsuit being filed, the Kings and the NBA also announced plans to jointly investigate the allegations involving Walton.
The lawsuit came less than two weeks after Walton’s hiring, and just eight days after Divac formally introduced him as the new head coach.
May 20: Drama builds as Kings start pre-draft workouts
Walton’s name returned to headlines when former Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson, in a candid interview with ESPN’s “First Take” on May 20, said that he wanted to fire Walton.
Johnson had resigned April 9, three days before the Lakers announced they’d mutually agreed to part ways with Walton. His comments more than a month later on ESPN included accusations that Lakers GM Rob Pelinka went behind his back, and that a disagreement Johnson had had with team owner Jeanie Buss over whether to fire Walton was Johnson’s final straw.
In late May and early June, The Bee reported that Divac, Walton and the Kings were planning to proceed with NBA draft preparations and Walton’s transition into the role as head coach. Walton’s first appearance in more than a month came May 24 at a pre-draft workout. Four days later, the Kings announced the first three hires of Walton’s assistant coaching staff.
The Bee’s Kings beat reporter Jason Anderson wrote at the time of a perhaps “uncomfortable” silence between late April and late May: As the Kings continued offseason preparations, fans and NBA followers got no updates on Walton’s situation, as the internal investigation initiated by the team and league continued behind the scenes – and as Walton started to appear on the sideline during workouts.
Early June: Vlade Divac comments for first time
In his first public comments since the allegations surfaced, Divac said that the team was “taking the investigation seriously” and the organization, in its joint investigation with the league, was “trying to find out the truth.”
League sources told The Bee at the time that Divac had been blindsided by the allegations concerning Walton, and that the team had no knowledge of the impending lawsuit or allegations, as reported in a column by Marcos Bretón.
June 7: Lawsuit adds Lakers, Warriors and NBA as possible defendants
Tennant on June 7 added a new complaint to her lawsuit, alleging negligence on the part of the “defendants, and each of them,” for acting “recklessly” and contributing to the harm Tennant says she suffered.
The defendants were not named, but Los Angeles-based attorney Michael Robbins told The Bee at the time that the Warriors, Lakers and NBA could each have potentially been named as defendants for the negligence charge.
Early July: Walton’s attorneys respond, deny assault
Walton’s formal response to Tennant’s lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in early July. His attorneys wrote that the accusations were false and an attempt to gain media attention.
The response acknowledged that Walton and Tennant did meet at the Santa Monica hotel in 2014, but that the encounter was “very short, entirely pleasant and consensual,” also denying that any groping had occurred.
In the court filing, Walton’s attorney Baute called Tennant’s claims “factually baseless” and claimed they were filed “because she needs money.”
Aug. 23: Internal investigation ends, finds no evidence
The four-month investigation initiated by the Kings and the NBA officially ended Aug. 23, when the Kings announced that a local law firm found insufficient evidence to support Tennant’s allegations of the 2014 sexual assault.
The investigation had interviewed more than 20 people, including friends and former colleagues of each party, and the interviews did not corroborate Tennant’s accusations, the team and league announced. Tennant declined to participate in the investigation, the Kings and the NBA said in a joint news release.
“Luke Walton is our head coach and we support him and his team as they continue to prepare for the upcoming season,” the Kings said in a news release.
The internal investigation was conducted by Sacramento law firm Van Dermyden Maddux.
Sept. 27: Walton makes first public comments at Kings media day
With the internal investigation over and the NBA regular season set to begin, Walton for the first time spoke in person to address the sexual assault allegations during his team’s media day at Golden 1 Center on Sept. 27.
With Tennant’s lawsuit still pending at that time, Walton told reporters he was focused on his job and his family.
He sidestepped a question of whether he was confident he would be cleared of wrongdoing, saying: “I’m here to do my job and focus on our Kings and get us where we need to get, and the rest will take care of itself.”
Dec. 4: Lawsuit dropped in court
Tennant’s civil lawsuit against Walton was dropped this week, with the dismissal granted in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, one day after her attorneys requested that the lawsuit be dismissed “with prejudice.”
That means Tennant cannot re-file or reopen her sexual assault case against Walton.
The lawsuit’s dismissal was first reported Thursday by TMZ. It is not known as of Thursday morning whether any kind of settlement was reached between the two parties.
