TIGHT SPOT: Cops yesterday haul evidence from the Philadelphia hotel suite of the Nets’ Andray Blatche after at least one pal was accused of sexual assault. (AP)
TIGHT SPOT: Cops yesterday haul evidence from the Philadelphia hotel suite of the Nets’ Andray Blatche (bottom) after at least one pal was accused of sexual assault. (
)
Way to make Brooklyn proud!
Nets forward Andray Blatche found himself embroiled in a scandal after a night out on the town in Philadelphia ended with a 21-year-old woman calling cops to his hotel suite early yesterday — saying she had been sexually assaulted by at least one of his pals.
Sources said the woman, a stripper at a Philly club where Blatche, 26, and a handful of friends were celebrating his contract being guaranteed through the end of the season, followed the group back to the Four Seasons hotel suite along with two other exotic dancers.
A source at the strip club said the group was the last to leave and all were all very drunk.
The accuser told cops she was sexually assaulted at around 3:30 a.m.
Blatche was questioned by police early yesterday and released, after which he tweeted, “I’m ok and I didn’t do anything jus was n the area when it happened.” He later pulled down the tweet.
Philadelphia’s police commissioner, speaking to The New York Times, cast doubt on the woman’s credibility.
“She was so intoxicated,” Commissioner Charles Ramsey told the paper. “She is not going to be a very good witness. From all accounts, [Blatche] was not personally involved . . . He was there, but he was not involved.”
But a local TV news station painted a different picture.
Cops allegedly found date-rape drugs in the suite and compromising photos of the victim on Blatche’s cellphone, ABC-6 Philadelphia reported.
Last night, cops were still interviewing two people who were in the suite at the time of the alleged assault, sources told The Post. Four others — including Blatche — had been released.
“It really is a case of being with the wrong friends in the wrong place,” an NBA source told The Post.
The team — which was in Philly to play the 76ers last night — isn’t planning any punishment for Blatche.
Blatche was greeted with a smattering of boos when he entered the court.
He quickly scored 10 points in 10 minutes in the first half, and wound up with 20, to go with seven rebounds.
The Nets won, 109-89, and Blatche left the arena without comment.
The incident was not the eight-year NBA vet’s first brush with the law.
He was arrested in DC in 2007 for allegedly picking up an undercover cop who posed as a prostitute, and he was busted for reckless driving the next year.
Blatche also was shot in the chest during a carjacking in Virginia during his rookie year in 2005.
While some Nets referred all questions to team management, MarShon Brooks said before last night’s game that the incident would not affect the team.
“We’re fine,” he said. “I really don’t know too much about it. But is it a distraction? No, we’re good.”
Additional reporting by Tim Bontemps and Erin Calabrese in Philadelphia, and Kevin Fasick
in New York