A list of famous athletes who have been convicted of sexual assault or related crimes, including rape. Both professional and amateur athletes have been included, although amateurs on this list must have competed in the Olympics, or some other equal level of competition and be somewhat recognizable to the public. This is a mostly complete list of athlete celebrities who were convicted for rape or sexual harassment, but feel free to add the names of athletes convicted of a sex crime in the comments if any are missing.
What athletes have been convicted of sex crimes? From rape by NFL players to sexual harassment in the MLB, there are a shocking amount of examples of sports figures arrested for sexual assault. For whatever reason, sports competitors (am I allowed to say "jocks"?) have a knack for getting themselves into trouble with the law.
Famous Athletes Convicted of Sexual Assault,
Darren Sharper
Former NFL player Darren Sharper has been charged with drugging and raping two women in California and also is suspected of doing the same to other women in Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. After retiring from football, Sharper worked briefly for WWL-TV as an analyst in August 2012 before leaving to take a position with the NFL Network.
Mark Rogowski
Mark "Gator" Rogowski saw success on the professional skateboarding circuit in the 1980s when he was just a teen. This all came to a halt in 1991 when, after a period of alcoholism, he murdered 22-year-old Jessica Bergsten. Rogowski admitted to beating her in the head with a metal club before raping her, suffocating her and taking her body to the desert where he buried her in a shallow grave. He later confessed to the murder and rape and sentenced to 31 years in prison. In 2011, he was denied parole.
Marlon King
Professional soccer player Marlon King has played for nearly as many teams as he has arrests, which number 14 dating back to 1997. King has been charged with assault, theft, fraud, drunk driving, receiving stolen goods and most notably sexual assault. The sex charge came in 2008 when he was punched a college student in the face and sexually assaulted her. Despite losing his soccer contract after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the crimes, upon his release he was signed by another club.
Mel Hall
Longtime Major League Baseball player Melvin Hall, Jr. played professional baseball from 1981 to 1996 when he retired as a member of the San Francisco Giants. Fast forward to 2007 when allegations that he had raped a woman in 1999 came to light in Texas. Hall was investigated during which time it was revealed that two other victims existed, one the age of 12 and one the age of 15 at the times of the assaults. He was convicted on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Hall will not be eligible for parole until 2031 at which time he will be 71 years of age.
Mike Tyson
Renowned boxer Mike Tyson dealt with a rape charge during the peak of his career in 1991. Tyson was convicted of raping the then-18-year-old Miss Black Rhode Island Desiree Washington and sentenced to six years in prison plus four years probation. He served three years and was released in 1995. He went on to resume his boxing career and appear in films such as "The Hangover."
Ruben Patterson
One-time NBA player Ruben Patterson had a long career in professional basketball which included a number of legal issues for sex crimes, SUI and assault. In 2001, Patterson pleaded guilty to raping a nanny hired to look after his child after he allegedly forced her to perform oral sex. He later was convicted of assaulting a man outside a Cleveland club, then picked up again in 2007 after failing to register as a sex offender. Most recently, in March 2010, Patterson was arrested for DUI in Ohio.
Thomas Henderson
Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson enjoyed a six-year career in the National Football League in the 1980s during which he also faced legal troubles for a multitude of offenses such as smoking cocaine with teenage girls then threatening them and sexually assaulting them. He pleaded no contest, served two years in prison and went to drug rehab. In the years since, Henderson went on to win the Texas Lotto for $28 million which he used to start a charity to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did.
Trevis Smith
Former Canadian Football League linebacker Trevis Smith found himself in hot water in 2005 after he was accused of exposing two women to HIV by failing to disclose his HIV-positive status before having unprotected sex with them. He was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and give five and a half years in prison. After serving only two years, he was released from prison and deported to the United States.
Tom Payne
Former NBA player, and first African American to play college basketball at the University of Kentucky, Tom Payne showed promise as he began his professional basketball career with the Atlanta Hawks in 1970 but that soon ended when he was investigated for rape. Payne was convicted of two counts of rape and one count of sodomy in 1972 and served five years in a Georgia prison. Upon his release, he was sent to Kentucky where he faced three additional rape charges. Another five years in prison followed as did a brief acting career before he was caught in the act of raping yet another woman in 1986. Back to prison he went until 2000 when he was shipped back to Kentucky to face another 15 years on a parole violation.
"Fast" Eddie Johnson
Former NBA player "Fast Eddie" Johnson enjoyed 10 seasons in the league before he was expelled for his drug problems. He went on to rack up no less than 100 arrests in the years since including from a 2006 incident in which he was charged with burglary, sexual battery, rape and the molestation of an eight-year-old girl. Johnson was later convicted of sexual battery of a minor under 12 and lewd and laviscious molestation of a child under 12 and sentenced to life in prison. He lives out his days at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution.