Metro

Sex charges dropped against European pro basketball player in Ritz-Carlton incident

The short nightmare is over for a European pro basketball player accused of abusing a woman yesterday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel — prosecutors this afternoon declined to prosecute him.

Michael Haynes, 29, who most recently played power forward for Ludwigsburg in Germany, spent a night in jail before being dragged before a judge and hearing the charges have been dropped.

“The people cannot prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt,” assistant district attorney Jennifer Gaffney said in court of the player.

Haynes was accused of holding a woman down during the 5 a.m. incident in a room at the Central Park South hotel, while his friend, a Nike executive from Portland Ore., performed a felony sex act on her.

Now, Haynes has been entirely cleared, and the charges against his friend, Brandyn Cooper, 27, were reduced to the lowest level of felony possible for non-consensual oral sexual contact.

Cooper’s charges were of such a low level, that prosecutors consented to his being released on no bail whatsoever. He returns to court Nov 30.

The two men had played together on Fordham University’s 2004 basketball squad, and were at the hotel for this weekend’s Nike World Basketball Festival at Madison Square Garden.