Ed. note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Warriors forward Anthony Lamb has been accused of raping his ex-girlfriend when he was a student at the University of Vermont in 2019 in a civil lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
The civil lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Burlington, details Lamb committing the sexual assault in an off-campus house on Sept. 7, 2019, when he was a junior.
Kendall Ware, a UVM student on the swim team and one of three plaintiffs in the suit, alleges Lamb forcefully anally penetrated her as she repeatedly told him to stop, telling him “no” over and over again. The two had broken up after a prior six-month relationship.
The lawsuit reads: “Ignoring her unequivocal demands, (Lamb) told her to ‘just take it’ and continued to rape her.”
Lamb isn’t a defendant in the civil lawsuit, but is alleged to have raped Ware and sexually abused her multiple other times during their relationship. The other two claims involve him removing a condom during sex without consent and filming their sexual intercourse non-consensually.
According to the lawsuit, Ware experienced suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, insomnia, isolation, physical and emotional distress and post-traumatic stress disorder after the alleged Sept. 7 rape.
Two days after the alleged assault, Ware began crying and shaking uncontrollably at a swim team weightlifting session. Five of her friends submitted forms on her behalf to alert the university of a potential crisis. She contemplated suicide and although she was scared about reporting Lamb given his stature on campus, she eventually told the university’s campus victim advocate what she experienced.
The suit alleges that University of Vermont administrators gaslit Ware and mishandled the Tile IX investigation process in an effort to protect the basketball star.
Shortly after the alleged off-campus assault, Ware filed a formal Title IX complaint. From there, according to Ware’s account, UVM athletics department officials including the athletic director inappropriately got involved in the investigation and steered her to instead pursue an informal resolution process. Administrators gave her conflicting information on the possible outcomes she could get to change her mind, the lawsuit says.
On November 19, Ware and Lamb signed a resolution agreement that resolved the investigation “without making any finding as to whether he violated UVM Policy.” Ware read a victim impact statement to Lamb over Zoom and the agreement required Lamb to refrain from contacting Ware, avoid using campus athletic facilities during certain hours, and complete a “generic healthy masculine identity program.”
Joining Ware in the lawsuit are two other statements who allege systemic failings in the University of Vermont’s responses to their reports of sexual assault. The suit accuses UVM and several university officials of violating the three students’ constitutional right to equal protection, federal Title IX protections against discrimination on the basis of sex and the Vermont Public Accommodations Act, among other claims. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages.
The Warriors provided a statement to SF Gate on Thursday addressing the situation.
“Anthony is not a defendant in this recent lawsuit and, to our knowledge, he has never been charged with any wrongdoing in any legal case,” the Warriors said in the statement to SFGATE. “Prior to signing Anthony in September, we did our due diligence with the NBA and his prior teams, as we do with all players. If any new information comes to light, we will certainly evaluate it and act accordingly.”
The lawsuit is the first time Ware has named Lamb publicly, though an anonymous Instagram account had already revealed him as an alleged abuser. When the Warriors signed Lamb as a free agent last October, general manager Bob Myers said the team had done its due diligence.
“We checked with the NBA, we checked with the two teams that had prior signed him and didn’t hear anything as far as official charges or anything like that,” Myers said in October. “It’s tough because we take that very seriously.”
In October, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the NBA investigated Lamb’s case and “found nothing” that specifically implicated him.
Lamb went undrafted out of UVM and played for the Rockets and Spurs before latching on with the Warriors. As a two-way player this year, he has become an important part of the team’s second unit, averaging 5.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 18.2 minutes per game.