NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City sportscaster was indicted Tuesday on charges he raped a 14-year-old runaway working as a prostitute.
Dr. Marvell Scott pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court to charges of rape, patronizing a prostitute and endangering the welfare of a child. His attorney called the charges “a ruse.”
“This case boils down to an attempt to shake down Dr. Scott by a pimp and his two prostitutes,” attorney Richard Portale said outside court. “And now Dr. Scott is forced to defend himself in court.”
Manhattan prosecutors said Scott met a man and two girls near Times Square on the afternoon of June 5, 2008. He paid the man, and took the 14-year-old and her 16-year-old female friend to his apartment where he raped the younger girl. The older girl was in the bedroom at the time of the assault, authorities said.
The girls had run away from school and met the man in the same area that day after they ran out of money, prosecutors said. He said he could help them make money. The man, who was separately charged, has not been identified and is expected to be a witness in the case, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Scott also apparently called the man after the incident asking again for the 14-year-old.
Scott, 36, left his job as a weekend sportscaster at WABC over the summer to pursue his medical career as a specialist in sports medicine. His lawyer said he spent 10 days in Haiti to help treat victims of the earthquake.
There is no DNA evidence linking Scott to the girl, but that’s because he used a condom, according assistant district attorney Lisa Friel.
DNA from two men was found on the girl’s neck, including that of the man expected to be a witness, Portale said.
“It was a ruse,” Portale said. “They saw him as a mark, they asked to use the bathroom, ‘Can I come up into your apartment?’ Once he sniffed it out, it was ended.”
Prosecutors said that after the incident, the girl used a good Samaritan’s cell phone to call her mother and returned to her upstate New York home.
Bail was set at $10,000.