Denver Nuggets rookie Julius Hodge will not be charged on an attempted-sexual-assault allegation, the Denver district attorney’s office said Thursday.
“The bottom line is that there was an inability to prove a charge beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. “We’ve declined to file.”
A 37-year-old woman claimed the attempted sexual assault happened Oct. 12 in Hodge’s condominium near downtown Denver.
Hodge had given a statement to a Denver police detective this week, and the case was referred to Morrissey’s office.
“We’re absolutely ecstatic,” Hodge’s attorney, Norm Early, said Thursday. “We had total confidence in his innocence. We felt the allegations were outrageous. We’re glad the district attorney’s office didn’t let this go any further.”
The woman who accused Hodge had been charged with crimes in four states, including perjury in California, and was fired from her restaurant job the day of her alleged encounter with him, officials said.
The Denver Post is withholding her name because she says she was a victim of an attempted sexual assault.
Early declined to say how Hodge met the woman.
He said the 21-year-old is a bright, wonderful young man, raised to respect women by his mother. He said Hodge has never been in trouble.
“It’s kind of sad, this is his introduction to the NBA,” said Marc Cornstein, Hodge’s agent.
According to records, the woman served jail sentences during the past 20 years for misdemeanor larceny in North Carolina, aggravated assault in Pennsylvania and perjury in California.
On Nov. 24, 2003, the woman held a knife to the throat of a former husband, according to Jefferson County records. She was convicted of felony menacing in April 2004 and later sentenced to three years probation.
In a group-therapy session, she called herself a “predator of men” and was subsequently prohibited from having men at her house, records show.
She also violated terms of her probation several times by breaking her 7 p.m. curfew, according to a report by her probation officer. The incident with Hodge proved she had violated her curfew again, according to court documents. She faces revocation of her probation.
Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said Hodge had “a spotless record for as far back as we could find.”
“He’s a great kid,” he said.
Staff writer Adam Thompson contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
