Sypher Extortion Trial Delayed

For those of you still wrapped up in the rumors and Pitino-bashing, pay close attention to the last sentence…

The government has agreed to delay for at least six weeks the trial of the woman accused of trying to extort millions of dollars from Louisville men’s head basketball coach Rick Pitino.

Federal prosecutors said in a motion filed Tuesday, June 16, that they have no objection to a defense motion seeking a continuance in the extortion trial of Karen Cunagin Sypher, the estranged wife of the team’s equipment manager. The trial had been set for June 29.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kuhn Jr. said prosecutors are still compiling phone records and producing tape recordings of the defendant.

Sypher, 49, a former model and saleswoman, faces up to two years in prison if convicted on charges that she had another person call Pitino in February and threaten to go public with allegations of “a criminal nature” against him. She faces another five years for allegedly lying to the FBI when she said she didn’t know who had made the calls for her.

In a complaint filed April 23, an FBI agent said Sypher had demanded that Pitino pay off her house, pay for her children’s college, give her $3,000 a month in cash and buy her two cars of her choice. A lawyer she hired later, Dana Kolter, demanded $10 million on her behalf, according to court records.

Sypher is the only individual charged.

Courtesy of The C-J.