District Attorney Reviews Olowokandi Case

As expected, Manhattan Beach detectives filed their case against Michael Olowokandi with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office Friday. The case is now under review, spokeswoman Sandy Gibbons said.

The district attorney’s office will decide next week whether to charge Olowokandi with assault against his former girlfriend, Suzanne Ketcham, who has since recanted her original statements. Olowokandi was arrested early on the morning of Dec. 1 on suspicion of cohabitant abuse, false imprisonment and robbery.

An arraignment has been set for Jan. 2, if the district attorney charges him. Olowokandi remains free on bail of $50,000.

Ketcham now says that she attacked Olowokandi in a jealous rage after the Clipper center, his brother and an unidentified woman believed to be his new girlfriend arrived at his Manhattan Beach home.

Olowokandi, 26, called the police investigation “a witch hunt,” in light of the new statements by Ketcham, 23. He has hired George T. Kelly, a South Bay attorney, to represent him. He also asked to meet next week with Kathleen Diesman, a deputy district attorney.

“I’d rather get along with basketball,” Olowokandi said before the Clippers played Friday against the Utah Jazz at Staples Center. “But in a sick and twisted way, I almost want things to go the distance, so I could tell the whole story. I mean, let’s let it all come out into the open.”

Olowokandi said statements made Thursday by detectives that they were investigating past incidents of domestic violence at his home were “absolute nonsense, complete nonsense.”

He also said Manhattan Beach Police Department detectives have not interviewed him. “How can they conclude their investigation if they haven’t talked to me yet?” he said.

After meeting with Kelly on Thursday evening, Olowokandi said of Det. Karl Nilsson, one of the investigators in the case, “Now, I definitely have some insight into the man.”

Olowokandi didn’t elaborate, but added, “I’m very, very, very surprised to learn that there are people like that out there who deal with the public.”

Of meeting with a deputy district attorney next week, Olowokandi said, “I’ll have to go there and see what happens next. What we’re doing now [meeting], it seems we should have been doing last week.”

Nilsson didn’t return a phone call Friday afternoon.

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The Clippers played their third consecutive game without shooting guard Eric Piatkowski, who continues to suffer from a strained right hip flexor. Corey Maggette replaced him in the starting lineup.