The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has received a request asking that it drop second-degree assault charges against Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. after his girlfriend, Kysre Gondrezick, accused him of breaking her neck during a physical altercation.
On Monday, the 23-year-old standout basketball star was arrested for allegedly beating and choking his girlfriend, who is a former WNBA player, while they stayed at the four-star Millennium Hilton New York Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
Gondrezick’s legal team initially said that the assault caused their client to have a fractured vertebra, according to a criminal complaint, but new reports show the fracture was not caused by him, but through a congenital defect she already had, according to documents reviewed by the NY Post. The DA’s office has since conceded with this new fact on the table, according to Porter’s defense team.
Emily Tuttle, speaking on behalf of the DA’s office said: “We will decline to comment on this open and pending case.”
But Porter’s defense team wants the office to act immediately and drop the second-degree felony assault charge brought against him. Should he be convicted of the crime, he faces a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
If the Seattle native’s attorneys are successful, he still can be charged with second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault and still faces a maximum of seven years in prison – if found guilty of strangling Gondrezick.
Meanwhile, Gondrezick’s lawyer Robert Hantman told the NY Post that “misleading and inaccurate” information has been attributed to his client.
In 2020, Porter was accused of assaulting a woman in Cleveland, although charges were never brought.
Porter was released from jail on a $75,000 bond Tuesday. According to a criminal complaint, he allegedly punched Gondrezick and “forcefully” wrung his hands around her neck, “causing her to experience difficulty breathing, redness and bruising to her neck, and substantial pain.”
Porter is currently under a $63.4 million contract with the Rockets and is due back in court Oct. 16.
This story is developing.
