A couple tried extorting the head coach of Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball by making fake sexual assault claims against him, prosecutors say. Then, they are accused of demanding large sums of money in exchange for taking back the claims.
Ronald Bell, 56, and his girlfriend, Jennifer Pendley, 50, both of Arizona, also got a Georgia Tech security guard involved in the scheme, convincing him to claim he witnessed coach Josh Pastner assault Pendley, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
When Pendley filed a lawsuit against Pastner in 2018 — accusing him of sexual battery and sexual assault — Bell told the security guard the “monster suit” would likely be worth $20 million and promised him a cut of the money, court documents state.
Now Bell has appeared in court for an arraignment on charges in connection with the conspiracy to extort the coach and the Georgia Institute of Technology, the attorney’s office announced in an Oct. 18 news release. This comes after a grand jury indicted the couple on Aug. 24.
McClatchy News contacted Bell’s attorney for comment on Oct. 18 and was awaiting a response. Information about an attorney for Pendley was not immediately available.
“Once again, greed does not pay,” Keri Farley, FBI special agent in charge of the agency’s Atlanta division, said in a statement. “(Bell and Pendley) sought to damage the reputations of the institution and coach for their own financial gain.”
Bell was an old friend of Pastner...
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