Report: Rick Pitino Concedes Affair, Paid for Abortion as Melodrama Plays Out

There's something like 10 kinds of crazy in the ever-expanding story on Louisville coach Rick Pitino and his relationship with the alleged extortionist Karen Cunagin Sypher. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the information she was holding over the married Pitino's head involved an extramarital affair. Still, this is now approaching pure soap-opera levels of melodrama.

The latest, as reported by the Courier-Journal, is that Pitino admitted to police investigators that he did have sex with Sypher and subsequently gave her $3,000 for an abortion after she claimed she was pregnant.

The sexual interlude took place after-hours at a restaurant where he had been drinking at the bar. According to the interview, Pitino strongly suggested that he may have been drunk. He told the police this after Sypher had recently made allegations that he raped her back in August 2003.

"Luckily" for Pitino, his executive assistant had been there as Pitino's designated driver. He corroborated Pitino's version. From the Courier-Journal's report:

That witness, Vinny Tatum, an executive assistant to Pitino, told the FBI that he didn't see what happened but heard "only the sounds of two people that seemed to be enjoying themselves during a sexual encounter," according to Abbott's report.

Oh, it gets sleazier. Sypher got in touch with Pitino a couple weeks later to let him know she was now pregnant and he was the father. They agreed to meet at the condo of the strength coach for the Louisville basketball team, Tim Sypher, a longtime friend of Pitino's. There, the still single Karen Cunagin decided to get an abortion but claimed not to have the medical insurance to pay for it. Pitino gave her $3,000 to cover the costs.

Tim Sypher, who was there that day, and Karen Cunagin, apparently started dating, er, shortly afterward and were married six months later. (How does that even begin to work?)

For a while, what information and news that had been leaking really made this look like a completely crazy woman going after Pitino. Her attorney had quit, and the court had to appoint one for her. She lacked much credibility as she claimed that Pitino raped her that night, and then said he sexually assaulted her at Tim Sypher's condo at their second meeting -- while Sypher was upstairs. And then married Sypher six months later.

Rick Pitino will most likely still be coach at Louisville. His reputation and image, though, are toast. The creepiness. The weirdness. Everything about this is just ugly, tawdry and sleazy.