Chris Dudley, Who Wrote Letter Vouching For Brett Kavanaugh, Once Defended Coach Accused Of Molesting Girls

Chris Dudley was one of many friends and former colleagues of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to vouch for his integrity after allegations of sexual misconduct.

Now, Kavanaugh’s former Yale classmate and longtime NBA player is coming under scrutiny for his past defense of a swimming coach accused and later arrested for sexual assault against young girls. As the Daily Beast reported, Dudley vouched for USA Swimming coach Don King, who was accused of molesting the girls he coached.

Chris Dudley spoke to the Lake Oswego School Board in support of King, who was trying to be reinstated in his job as a swimming coach. As the local news site BlueOregon noted, Dudley offered firsthand accounts of working with King and said he found him to be a man of integrity.

“Mr. Dudley resides in Lake Oswego and has three children—ages 9, 8, and 6—all of whom have been coached by Mr. King,” the passage reads. “Mr. Dudley noted that Mr. King assisted him when he had to rehab in the pool following an injury when playing for the Blazers. Mr. King assisted Mr. Dudley with water exercises that had therapeutic value, as well as some manipulation of his body…Within the context in which Mr. King provided massage therapy to Mr. Dudley, Mr. Dudley indicated that he did not consider it sexual or harassing in nature.”

But Dudley also admitted that he saw coach King having children sit on his lap, placing his hand on the clothed buttocks of children, and pulling children toward him by hooking his finger in their bathing suit. Dudley said these acts would have made him uncomfortable coming from someone else, but said he trusted King.

Don King was arrested on felony sexual assault charges. He was ultimately acquitted of the charges in a 2009 trial, but the jury said they were disturbed by his actions toward teenage girls. King was banned for life from the USA Swimming organization.

When King tried to clear his name, he faced new allegations that he sexually abused teens in the 1980s, including one woman who claimed that he engaged in sexual misconduct that eventually escalated to oral sex.

Chris Dudley was thrust into another story regarding Brett Kavanaugh this week. After a former Yale classmate claimed that Kavanaugh drunkenly caused a bar fight by overreacting to a semi-hostile comment, Dudley was identified as a man who struck a bar patron who grew angry when Kavanaugh misidentified him as the lead singer of the band UB40.