Mason Charged With Rape, Agent Says It Was a Setup

Anthony Mason of the Charlotte Hornets was charged with statutory rape and sexual abuse Sunday in New York following accusations that he and a cousin had sex with 14 and 15-year-old sisters.

Mason and his cousin, Williams Duggins of Queens, N.Y., were freed on bail after Mason posted $20,000--a figure set by Judge Steven Paynter based on Mason’s disorderly conduct conviction last fall--and Duggins put up $3,500.

Mason’s lawyer, Frank Rothman, said the former New York Knick was the victim of a setup. He also said Mason would appear at his next court date, set for March 9.

“If you have a satellite dish you can see him three nights a week on television. Where is he going to go?” asked Rothman.

Duggins was arrested once on a minor charge, and is an unemployed construction worker, according to his lawyer, Edward M. Kratt. Paynter ordered the cousins not to contact one another.

Both lawyers said their clients offered to give blood samples for DNA tests to prove their innocence after Assistant District Attorney Scott Kessler said detectives were holding bedding from the alleged attack. The offer was not accepted.

The prosecutor also said that both men knew the girls’ ages when they first met on Friday night.

Rothman said Sunday he has “a neutral witness to shatter allegations” that the girls were attacked by his client, and that Mason “did not have sex with these girls, oral or otherwise.”

Before the arraignment, Deputy Chief Jane Perlov, chief of Queens detectives, told a news conference the two men and the girls met during a benefit basketball game at York College in Queens on Friday night, then drove to Duggins’ home in Laurelton, Queens.

“They went willingly and were not held against their will,” Perlov said of the two teenagers.

She said the alleged rapes occurred at the house, and the sexual abuse charge stemmed from events, which she did not specify further, that took place on the way there.

In addition to the charges of statutory rape and sexual abuse, both men were accused of endangering the welfare of a child, she said.

Perlov said the girls had gone afterward to the home of a relative, where they revealed details of the alleged attack, and police were called.

The girls were given physical exams at Franklin General Hospital and released.

Soccer

Paul Hall scored twice to lead Jamaica past Guatemala 3-2 in a first-round match of the CONCACAF Gold Cup at the Coliseum.

The victory keeps Jamaica in contention for the semifinals while eliminating Guatemala. Jamaica could qualify by tying El Salvador in the final Group 1 match Monday night.

Paraguay made a promising start to its final preparations for the World Cup in France, defeating Poland, 4-0, in suffocating heat in the country’s capital, Asuncion.

African Cup of Nations champion South Africa missed key opportunities in beginning defense of its title with a 0-0 tie against Angola at Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

Both teams finished with only 10 players after the referee dismissed Angola’s Matteus Augostino in the 88th minute for an infraction against John Moeti, who also was red-carded for retaliating.

Miscellany

Reliever Brad Clontz and the Atlanta Braves agreed to a one-year contract worth $545,000, avoiding a salary arbitration hearing later in the week.

Clontz, 26, split time between the Braves and their Triple-A team in Richmond, where he had a record of 0-0 with no earned runs and six saves. With Atlanta, he was 5-1 and had a 3.75 ERA and one save in 51 games.

The Dominican Republic moved to within a victory of defending its title in the Caribbean Series of baseball by defeating Puerto Rico, 9-4, at Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.

The Caribbean Series matches Winter League champions from four countries, and each team plays six games.

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Ukraine’s Vita Pavlysh produced the season’s best performance in the women’s shot put, 66 feet, three inches, at the Russian Winter indoor track and field meet at Moscow.

Svetlana Goncharenko of Russia set a Russian record in the women’s 100 meters, clocking 11.23 seconds.

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Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia fell two seconds short in a bid for his second world record in two weeks, winning the 1,500 meters in three minutes, 33.27 seconds in the Flanders Indoor meet at Ghent, Belgium.

Gebreselassie smashed his world 3,000-meter indoor record Jan. 25 at Karlsruhe, Germany, only to see it broken again Friday in Budapest by his archrival, Daniel Komen of Kenya.