Eddie Johnson goes Diego in Ocala

[Goober McTuber]

OCALA, Fla. -- Ocala authorities said former NBA All-Star Eddie Johnson was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl.

Police said Johnson, 51, was charged on Tuesday with sexual battery on a child under the age of 12 and residential burglary for entering the apartment where the girl was staying while her mother was out.

According to a police report, Johnson walked into the apartment uninvited and told the girl's 6-year-old brother to lock the door.

The police report says the girl told detectives Johnson ordered her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her. He apparently then told her "not to tell anyone about what just happened."

She told her mother about the alleged assault. The girl's mother told detectives she knew Johnson from the neighborhood, but he had never had permission to be in her home.

Johnson was arrested in a field near the apartment building.

The police report states that he told detectives he had been in the apartment with the children and kissed the girl on the head, which he does all the neighborhood children "as a friendly gesture."

Johnson is being held without bond at the Marion County jail. It's not immediately known if he is being represented by an attorney.

The former guard played in the NBA from 1977-1987 with the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Seattle SuperSonics. He represented the Hawks in the 1980 and 1981 NBA All-Star games and scored more than 10,000 points in his career.

[Goober McTuber]

An interesting follow-up to this. Driving around at noon I flipped on Rome’s show. Skip Bayless was guest-hosting and basically read this story line by line. Skippy went on to note that Eddie had a somewhat extensive criminal record dating back to 1990, including assault and burglary charges. He then wondered how Jerry Colangelo felt about this, seeing as Eddie had played for the Phoenix Suns, and has been doing color commentary for the Suns telecasts for the past three years. Skippy mentioned that he had worked professionally with Eddie Johnson. Skippy couldn’t believe that the Eddie Johnson he knew had done this.

Of course, the Eddie Johnson he knew hadn’t done this. It was the other Eddie Johnson. Somebody on Rome’s staff figured this out a while later, and Skippy apologized. Profusely. Skip Bayless is a fucking idiot.

[Sirfindafold]

thanks for the update.

[Goober McTuber]

Go fuck yourself.

[fleaflicker]

OUCH.