Randolph hit with second lawsuit

Filing claims Blazer and others in ‘Hoop Family’ beat, harassed man they believed was a ‘snitch’

By Jacob Quinn Sanders

The Portland Tribune, Nov 17, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (16 Reader comments)

Blazer Zach Randolph is named in a lawsuit that alleges that he and others assaulted a Portland man they believed tipped off authorities to illegal dogfighting.

TrIBUNE File PHOTO

A $300,000 lawsuit filed last month against Portland Trail Blazers forward Zach Randolph and former teammate Qyntel Woods claims that the two players and others assaulted and harassed a Northeast Portland man for more than two years, calling him a “snitch” and a “bitch dog” in connection with dogfighting allegations against Woods.

Filed Oct. 13 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, the lawsuit is the first of two filed against Randolph within a month, the other being a $2 million sexual assault suit filed against him this week.

Together the lawsuits — taken with other publicly available information — paint a picture of the “gangsta” ethic seemingly adopted by Randolph, a West Linn resident, and his self-described “Hoop Family.”

Both lawsuits use the term “Hoop Family” or some version of it to describe a group of people Randolph surrounds himself with and who seem to feed off the association.

Among those people, the Oct. 13 lawsuit claims, are two other defendants, one identified only as “DeeMo” and another named Dontay Stidum, who allegedly threatened the Northeast Portland man’s life.

In another incident alleged in the lawsuit, Randolph himself confronted the plaintiff, Robert Bacote, 32, at Geneva’s Shear Perfection, a Northeast Portland hair salon, telling Bacote he would get “handled.”

“Where I come from we don’t [expletive] with snitches!” Randolph said, according to the lawsuit.

On a later occasion, at the downtown nightclub Vue, since closed, Randolph walked up to Bacote in the VIP room and started calling him a snitch again, loud enough so others could hear, according to the lawsuit.

Bacote asked Randolph to please not say that so loud with so many other people around. Then Bacote tried to leave.

“Randolph then struck the plaintiff in the chest,” according to the lawsuit. “Plaintiff immediately left the club, bruised and feeling humiliated.”

Randolph was traveling with the team in Cleveland and Boston, and attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. His and Woods’ agent, Raymond Brothers, did not return a phone call seeking comment by press time.

Randolph’s Portland attorney, Mark Wagner, was in trial and unavailable for comment. Blazers spokesman Art Sasse said the team would not comment on an ongoing legal matter. Woods and Stidum could not be reached.

Bacote’s lawyer, Sean Hartfield, said his client was a rapper and singer who moved in some of the same circles as the Blazers players because he tried to book gigs at some of the same clubs where they hung out. Bacote performs on occasion under the name Mackin’ Rob.

“It’s a small community for those kinds of people,” Hartfield said. “Rappers and ballers (basketball players) and wannabe rappers and wannabe ballers. But it all revolves around the ballers because that’s where the women are.”

According to Bacote’s lawsuit, the animosity between him and Woods and Randolph stemmed from 2004 allegations of illegal dogfighting against Woods, which culminated in the player’s guilty plea to a misdemeanor animal abuse charge in Clackamas County the following January.

According to his lawsuit, Bacote believed that Woods, Randolph and others considered him the source — falsely, Bacote claims — of information that led to two search warrants being served at Woods’ then-home in Lake Oswego.

The lawsuit makes mention of Woods also berating Bacote in public and beating him outside the Roseland Theater in late 2004 — with Randolph present, encouraging Woods and others to beat him down, shouting, “Get him, dog. Get him,” according to the lawsuit.

But much of the 11-page lawsuit complaint focuses on Randolph and his associates — what Randolph calls his “Hoop Family” or “Hoop Fam.”

Web site shows lifestyle

A MySpace.com page belonging to someone who calls himself “KK” is saturated with “Hoop Family” references — tattoos and diamond necklaces that spell out “Hoop Family,” a poster for a summer “Hoop Family” party put on by “Big Z-Bo Entertainment,” a reference to Randolph’s nickname.

The page also contains a photograph of Randolph standing with a friend beside a tricked-out car.

KK’s page also purports to be an illustration of the “Hoop Family” lifestyle, with prominent photos of money and expensive cars, and video of rump-shaking women.

Everything related to the “Hoop Family” revolves around the famous basketball player, according to the lawsuit. And where he leads, they follow, the suit asserts.

The sexual assault lawsuit filed Nov. 13, quoting police reports, says Randolph associates told police that the player “considers himself a gangster,” and tells friends “I’m a gangster not a Blazer.”

In yet another incident, according to the lawsuit, Randolph told an employee at Jiggles strip club in Tualatin — located near the Blazers’ practice facility — who knew Bacote to tell him to “watch [plaintiff’s] back.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit