Pitino Update: Woman Charged

Joe Robbins/US Presswire

This Rick Pitino story keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Today the FBI charged Karen Sypher with federal extortion charges.  The strangest fact though is that there are still very little facts released.

Exactly what Sypher was using against Pitino to attempt to extort him is yet to be released.  However, what she was attempting to get in exchange for keeping her mouth shut was released today.  She wanted Pitino to give her two cars (of her choice of course), college tuition for her kids, $3000 a month, and she wanted Pitino to pay off her house.  She later consolidated those demands to a cool $10 million.

Whatever Sypher thinks she has on Pitino must be pretty good for those types of demands.  Recently, Sypher’s mother said that Pitino is a bad man and has done bad things to Karen Sypher.  That seems a little unrealistic considering Karen’s husband Tim is still associated with Louisville basketball, he is the equipment manager.  Tim Sypher has also backed Pitino during these bizarre string of events.

The court documents from today don’t shed much more light on the situation except that Pitino thinks that all of this stems from an encounter in 2003.  Although Karen Sypher seems to be very unreliable, the fact that Pitino could narrow the problems to one event makes me wonder if he may be guilty of something as well.  Or at the very least, less than innocent in the whole matter.  The good news is that this story has taken off and gained the media’s attention.  More details should become available rather soon.