Former WNBA Star Kysre Gondrezick Denies Claims Kevin Porter Jr. Abused Her: “He Didn’t Hit Me… That Is A Lie.”
Source: Meg Oliphant / Getty
Now that Diddy has been accused of violence and years of horrific abuse in his relationship with Cassie in a civil lawsuit, domestic violence is back in the forefront. But months ago, a high-profile case that also raised flags about the issue has seemingly taken a turn.
In September, Kysre Gondrezick and her then-boyfriend, Houston Rockets star Kevin Porter, Jr., got into an argument in a New York City hotel room that allegedly turned violent. He was arrested and charged with second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault.
Though Porter, Jr. was considered a rising star, he was asked not to report to the Rockets training camp and was then traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who released him.
But now Gondrezick, 26, a former WNBA player, says that initial reports of what happened were wrong. She walked back the allegations in October when one of the charges against Porter, Jr. was dropped.
In an exclusive interview this week, she told Roland Martin that after attending an event at New York Fashion Week, she returned to their hotel room and went to sleep, while Porter stayed out to hang with his teammates. When he returned, he was locked out of the room and had security let him in.
Gondrezick says she awoke to an inebriated Porter yelling at her and trying to get her to wake up for a conversation she says she has no memory of. In trying to wake her, she says, he pulled at her shoulders and when she stood up on the bed, she fell into the wall by the bed and hit her head.
“My injuries don’t support any of those [beating] claims,” Gondrezick told the New York Post. She blames the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and police who responded to the call for the discrepancies. She says she never told law enforcement what happened and that they filled in the gaps themselves.
“He didn’t hit me. He never balled his fists up and hit me,” she said of the incident with Porter, Jr. “And he definitely didn’t punch me in the face numerous times. That is a lie. I don’t have any injuries to support that.”
This week, Gondrezick, who has removed photos of Porter, Jr., 23, from her Instagram page, said that the abuse was assumed, not confirmed, at the scene.
It was also reported that Porter hit her so hard that she fractured a vertebrae, which proved to be an existing injury after further review. Gondrezick says that she did not fill out the original police report as she wasn’t in the emotional space at the time to do so.
“It happened very fast, not to the degree of what was reported,” she said of the incident in her New York Post interview. “And it was an argument that occurred in the room for not even 10 seconds.”
— Kysre Gondrezick (@KysreRae) October 18, 2023
In her interview with Martin, Gondrezick provided an audio recording that seems to back up her assertion that reports at the scene did not come directly from her. In a conversation between Gondrezick’s mother and Mirah Curzer who is in the Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Bureau in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Curzer confirms that the information about the alleged assault came from law enforcement.
Gondrezick says that she’s not trying to save Porter, Jr.’s career but her own as an influencer and model. She says the allegations have hurt her ‘credibility’ with prospective clients.
Porter, Jr. is not currently with an NBA team and his return to the league remains in limbo as the legal process plays out. But Porter Jr. has had issues at every step of his career. He was suspended at USC due to “conduct” issues, and after spending his rookie year with Cleveland, didn’t return to the team for “personal reasons” and at some point had a verbal confrontation with team staff.
When Martin asked Gondrezick if all charges against Porter, Jr. should be dropped, she said, “Absolutely. They’ve already offered this man a plea deal with no jail time, that they didn’t report,” she said of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. “But they have it out in the general media and the public that he’s still facing two charges. There’s so much information that they’re withholding. They are refusing to take accountability for their actions and manipulating this entire case to catapult their own injustice.”
Gondrezick also says that her sister, Kalabrya Haskins, who threatened Porter, Jr. in a deleted social media post, was simply misinformed. She says she has evidence that the alleged assault didn’t happen.
Watch Gondrezick’s interview with Martin below:
“Given the fact that information that comes from the D.A.’s office, that comes from law enforcement, is supposed to be credible and factual,” Gondrezick told Martin. “To know that they can do this, that they they can withhold information and disregard information is very unsettling and it’s disheartening and very disturbing. I feel like it’s my duty to come forth and talk about it, because they tried to defame the integrity of who I am to bring forth charges against someone that never did any of these things that they have against him.”
While there is no way to prove or disprove the allegations until the case is resolved, it is not unusual for victims of domestic violence to recant. It’s part of the array of behaviors known as battered women’s syndrome when women return to their abuser and minimize their injuries or the incidents or recant altogether.
Gondrezick maintains that she never made statements to the police that would have to be recanted in the first place.
If you or a loved one is experiencing domestic violence there are resources and information available to you here.
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