Detroit police are investigating a massage therapist's claim that basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson forcibly groped and kissed her in a hotel room last year. The 32-year-old St. Clair Shores, Mich., woman who has not been identified"made accusations that Magic Johnson touched her inappropriately," said Detroit Police Department Deputy Chief Michael Hall. "We're going to thoroughly investigate it."
Johnson has not been arrested or even interviewed by police yet. A spokesman at Magic Johnson Enterprises in California said he was traveling. The alleged sexual touches took place Sept. 29, 1999, in a Detroit hotel room where Johnson was staying. According to police and the woman's lawyer, Johnson and the massage therapist met last year at a party after a concert and started talking. When Johnson learned the woman's occupation, he asked her to treat his recurring neck pain that same night. After some urging, she agreed.
"Although it's unusual for her to do this, it's Magic Johnson, she's a professional, so she goes back there to help him," said her lawyer, Lee Turner. About 3:00 a.m. Sept. 29, the woman -- who her lawyer said is a tae kwon do champion -- went to Johnson's hotel room.
"She had a massage table and brought that along with her," Hall said. "She definitely had the trappings of a massage therapist." After several hours of massage, the woman concluded the treatment and prepared to leave.
But Johnson, reportedly, clad only in a T-shirt, stepped in front of the woman, and allegedly gave her two open-mouth kisses against her will, Turner said. After he allegedly pressed himself against her buttocks, she escaped out into the hallway, Turner continued.
The police expect to present the findings of their investigation to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office by the end of the month, Hall said. Prosecutors will then decide whether to bring criminal sexual conduct charges against Johnson. There has been a gap of several months between the alleged incident and the report to police, which Turner explained by saying that his client spent weeks in shock and "not wanting to tell anyone." Later, she pursued several fruitless avenues, he said, including hiring a lawyer prior to retaining Turner and trying to contact Johnson herself.
The woman, according to Turner, was scared that contact with Johnson's saliva had exposed her to the risk of HIV infection; the basketball player has announced publicly that he carries the virus.The massage therapist's tests for the virus have come back negative, Turner said.
Turner said he is pursuing the case to prevent Johnson from acting roughly with other women as well as to seek reparations for his client. "I want to hold him accountable for whatever this has caused to her. I want to hold him accountable for violating her as he did."
Original reports were that Turner's client charged Johnson $300 for that "visitation."
