A criminal rape investigation never resulted in charges against Billups or the other men. A civil case filed in federal court in Massachusetts by Doe offers some specifics of the allegations she made, however.
Doe’s complaint alleges on Nov. 9, 1997, three men, including Billups, raped her at the house of Billups’ Boston Celtics teammate Antoine Walker. In her lawsuit, Doe states a medical examination done the next day revealed “injuries to [Doe’s] throat, cervix and rectum.” In his answer to Doe’s complaint filed with the court nearly one year later, Billups said he engaged in consensual oral sex with Doe, and that he drove Doe not to Walker’s house but to teammate Ron Mercer’s.
Retracing the 1997 case involves many roadblocks. One of Doe’s attorneys, a Harvard University law professor, has Alzheimer’s disease. One of the defendants’ attorneys on the case is dead. Another said he hasn’t spoken to Billups in years and also said he wasn’t contacted as part of any investigation by the Trail Blazers.
“I’m the only lawyer standing in this case,” said Burnham, who was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board, which aims to help solve murders, such as lynchings and other racially motivated killings, from the Civil Rights Era.
Burnham refused to discuss Doe’s allegations against Billups and the other players and said neither she nor her client was interested in being drawn into the case again.
“There is a truth issue here we care about,” Burnham said. “But beyond that, I hope the people of Oregon and Portland will figure it all out.”
The Blazers’ investigation also did not contact the current district attorney in Middlesex County, where the alleged rape took place, or Thomas Reilly, the former district attorney who led the investigation into the 1997 allegation and declined to press criminal charges.
Reilly, who served as Massachusetts attorney general from 1999 to 2007, told OPB in an email that he believes Billups.
“Mr. Billups has consistently said that any acts between him and the woman involved were consensual,” Reilly said via email. “I believe he is telling the truth because the evidence obtained during the course of a very thorough investigation backed him up … no doubt about it.”
Reilly declined to go into any detail about the case or to describe the evidence that led him to the conclusion that Billups did not rape Jane Doe in November 1997.
“You and your colleague can continue to work this story until the cows come home but you will not be able to change the bottom line … .” Reilly said in an email. “Mr. Billups is telling the truth about the incident you refer to. You called me and I’ve tried to help you but enough is enough … case closed.”
