SEATTLE — In the hour that followed the final game of his college basketball career, University of Washington senior Venoy Overton spent 10 or 15 minutes in a training room inside Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena explaining his half-court shot that came a couple of seconds too early.
He a
nswered reporters’ questions amicably as he undressed, until only one member of the media remained in the small training room with Overton. The subject turned to Overton’s future, and his life after UW.
“I’m going to be fine,” he said, adding that he planned to continue playing basketball, perhaps overseas.
Three months later, those words couldn’t be less prophetic.
After earning a degree from the school earlier this month, Overton has seen his life take another turn for the worse. He spent Thursday night in a Kent jail, and on Friday was charged in a King County Superior Court with promoting prostitution, a felony punishable by up to five years in jail and a fine of $10,000. According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Overton is accused of attempting to engage an 18-year-old girlfriend into illegal activity on a street south of Seattle.
The Associated Press also reported that Overton is being held on $150,000 bail and his arraignment is scheduled for June 30.
The charges came less than four months after Overton was suspended from the team for the Pacific-10 Conference tournament, stemming from a January incident that involved giving alcohol to a minor and an accusation of rape. Overton dodged the more serious charge in that incident but was given a continuance after being charged with giving alcohol to a minor.
The latest charge is no less disturbing and is likely to lead to further charges after his continuance, which had a provision that he stay out of trouble for a year and perform 24 hours of community service.
More details of his latest case came out in court Friday.
According to the court documents, the 18-year-old woman said she was new to prostitution and that Overton had convinced her to do it.
The Associated Press quoted the documents as saying: “She said it was her boyfriend’s (Overton’s) idea and stated he had ‘pushed’ her to do it despite her telling him she didn’t want to. Overton told her it was an easy way to make money. He told her she won’t have to do it anymore once he made it (as a professional basketball player).”
The court documents also mentioned incriminating text messages from Overton explaining to the girl how to be a prostitute. The court papers also allege the former UW player told police during his arrest in a fast food restaurant parking lot that he had made a mistake.
“When asked why he chose to do it if he knew it was wrong, Overton said, ‘I’m not gonna turn down money from a girl,”‘ court documents allege.
The UW men’s basketball program, which stood behind Overton after the rape accusation, was understandably upset to learn of his latest charges. In a statement released through the athletic department Thursday afternoon, head coach Lorenzo Romar said he was “extremely disappointed” and added that he “spent an extraordinary amount of time and energy attempting to mentor Venoy prior to his recent graduation, so this news is especially troubling.”
Overton is a Seattle native who attended Franklin High School and has been an integral part of the UW team for the past four years. He was used mostly as a reserve, providing an energetic boost off the bench and some of the best on-the-ball defense in the conference.
Overton played in 31 games as a senior last season, averaging 6.0 points and 3.3 assists per game. He spent most of the conference season under the shadow as an unnamed — albeit widely speculated — Husky basketball player who had been accused of raping an under-aged girl. Overton first spoke publicly of the accusation shortly after the Pac-10 tournament, when he was sidelined all three games because of a team-imposed suspension.
He went on to play in the Huskies’ two-game run in the NCAA tournament, and took an ill-advised shot from half court with about two seconds remaining on the clock in a one-point loss to North Carolina.
After that game, Overton said that he was hoping to get fouled on the wild shot, which sailed harmlessly out of bounds with about one second remaining.
And then he spoke of his post-UW plans, which he hoped would include a professional career in basketball and an opportunity to showcase himself as more of a scorer than he was allowed to be with the Huskies.
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