LA Lakers legend Byron Scott has been accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl in a janitor’s closet when he was a young, married sporting star.
Details of the case are included in explosive documents obtained by Daily Mail this week.
The incident happened 38 years ago in a locked janitor’s closet at an exclusive private school in LA. It was the summer of 1987, and Scott was at the school for an event with the Lakers team, according to a verified amended complaint.
The plaintiff, Hayley Dylan, who was 15 at the time, has chosen to reveal her identity rather than remain anonymous.
Shockingly, Scott, now 53, admits that he had sexual contact with the girl but says he thought she was 18.
Scott’s attorney, Linda Bauermeister, told Daily Mail: ‘Our client is devastated by this complaint, a basketball event that took place in 1987.
‘Our client believed the plaintiff to be over 18 and had no idea she would claim otherwise until 35 years later.
‘He respects girls and women, and the claims have blindsided him and his family.’
Scott was married to first wife Anita Scott, 66, whom he divorced in 2014, at the time.
Byron Scott has been accused of sexual assault by a schoolgirl he had a sexual encounter with in 1987. He is pictured in 1986
Scott was married to his first wife, Anita, when the encounter at Campbell Hall School took place. He admits an encounter with the girl, telling Daily Mail through his rep that he thought she was over 18
In the lawsuit, the now 53-year-old accuses the NBA superstar of sexual battery, sexual assault, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Dylan also names Campbell Hall School, where she was a student at the time and where the assault allegedly occurred, as a defendant for not protecting her from Scott.
Before the incident, Dylan was a young girl who ‘loved school’ and had ‘never kissed a boy.’
Afterwards, her ‘innocence was shattered, and her life forever altered,’ according to the complaint.
The 20-page lawsuit details how Scott, who was 26 at the time, allegedly forced himself on the girl after escorting her into an area of the school’s gymnasium away from other adults.
Dylan was taking a math summer class at the school during the same time several Lakers players were filming an instructional basketball video in the gym and then also met with students, parents and faculty members.
The alleged assault happened at the Campbell Hall School, shown, in 1987 inside a janitor’s closet
During a break in filming, staff and parents were with the players until being asked to leave the gym as taping was about to resume.
But then, the complaint claims, Scott pointed to Dylan and told production staff: ‘She can stay.’
Despite the teen being left alone with adults, ‘Campbell Hall faculty and staff failed to take any steps or implement any safeguards to supervise or otherwise protect Plaintiff from anything that could, and eventually would, happen to her,’ the complaint reads.
Instead, per the court record, school officials saw it as an opportunity for Hayley to acquire autographs for them from the sports star.
The school’s then athletic director took a photograph of Hayley with Scott as they sat together on the bleachers – with the girl positioned between his knees on a lower step.
The photo was then displayed in the athletic director’s office, the complaint says.
Later, Scott asked Hayley to have lunch with him which, according to the suit, was part of a plan designed to ‘gain Hayley’s trust and to further isolate her.’
The two picked up food from the craft services and Scott took Hayley into the drama theater located next to the gym where they ate together at a round table. At one point, two of her friends came into the other side of the theater briefly and left.
The 6’ 4” shooting guard first played for the Lakers from 1983 – 1993, during the team’s heroic ‘Showtime’ era, and had a second stint from 1996 to 1997
Byron Scott with actor Jack Black, taken at the Crypto.com Arena and posted to Scott’s Instagram account on April 22
When filming finished for the day, Scott asked Haley to give him a tour of the school’s weight room and other gym facilities which were located underneath the school’s basketball court.
Hayley, ‘proud and excited to be able to show off her school to someone she admired,’ agreed.
Things quickly took a turn for the worse when they were downstairs alone, according to the complaint.
That is when Scott found an unmarked door at the end of a hallway which he opened, went inside, flicked the light off and on and tested the lock. The room was a janitor’s closet.
He then ‘forcefully grabbed Hayley by the arm and pulled her inside the room’ leaving her ‘frightened and confused.’
Scott then ‘began kissing her on the mouth as she repeatedly asked “what are you doing?”
‘Then, despite her clear protests, Scott pushed Hayley to her knees, and, against her will, pulled off her top. Scott the pulled down his shorts, exposed his erect penis, and tried to force Hayley to perform oral sex on him.’
Hayley was ‘terrified’ and ‘pleaded for Scott to stop and tried to turn her head away from his erect penis,’ the complaint claims.
Eventually, the complaint says, Scott relented and told his victim to get up off the floor and get dressed then he unlocked the door so she could leave.
Scott’s teammates, the Lakers assistant coach, trainer and film production staff had seen him lead Hayley away and then return roughly 20 minutes later, according to the complaint.
By then, Campbell Hall staff, students and parents had departed for the day.
The players and production crew were having a wrap party outside the gym where alcohol was being served, the suit says. It continues that Scott gave Hayley a beverage – apparently alcohol – which she threw away after one sip. She had never tasted alcohol previously.
By now, Hayley’s ‘mind was reeling’ and she was ‘scared’ and ‘disoriented.’
With no school staff or parents on hand, she had no way to get to her home in Encino a few miles west.
Scott (left) with fellow Lakers legend Kobe Bryant in 2015 during a game against the Atlanta Hawks
According to Hayley’s lawsuit, Scott took her to his car – a red, two-door Mercedes – where they sat and talked for five minutes, with the player focused on discouraging her from telling anyone about the assault.
He suggested the two could ‘hang out’ and gave her some Lakers merchandise from the trunk of the car, including a satin gym bag with his jersey number on it. Scott wore the number four for the Lakers.
He eventually asked a teammate, who also lived in Encino, if he could take Hayley home but the player – apparently recognizing the inappropriate nature of driving alone with a strange teen, responded: ‘F**k, no. I’m not putting that girl in my car.’
Instead, she used a payphone to call her mother who picked her up.
It was twenty years later when she learned that rumors of the assault had circulated around the school at the time, when one former student asked her: ‘Are you the girl that hooked up with Byron Scott?’
‘In the years that followed Scott’s sexual assault and battery, Hayley suffered, and she continues to suffer, severe psychological and emotional distress, as well as feelings of embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, shame, and humiliation,’ states the suit.
Scott and second wife CeCe Gutierrez seen together on the red carpet on March 13 this year
Dylan – formerly Hayley Mendell – is represented by attorney Kerry Garvis Wright of law firm Glaser Weil, who declined to comment to Daily Mail.
Despite the distance of years, Dylan chose to come forward after California Governor Gavin Newsom enacted the California Child Victims Act, which became law on January 1, 2020, and extended the statute of limitations for decades-old child sex cases.
‘While still a difficult decision to come forward now and relive the trauma Hayley is bravely doing so to shine a light and to seek some amount of justice and hopefully closure for the significant psychological trauma and emotional distress that she has experienced every day since the sexual assault,’ per the suit.
The 6’ 4” shooting guard first played for the Lakers from 1983 – 1993, during the team’s heroic ‘Showtime’ era, and had a second stint from 1996 to 1997.
The Showtime period for the Lakers ran from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and became the most iconic period in professional basketball history – defined by its fast-paced style of play, charismatic players, and dazzling array of talent.
Now 64, he won three NBA championships with the team, in 1985, 1987 and 1988 and was head coach from 2014 – 2016.
He also played for the Indiana Pacers and the Vancouver Grizzlies. He was assistant coach of the Sacramento Kings from 1998 – 2000 and won NBA Coach of the Year in 2008.
The father of three has two sons and a daughter. He married second wife Cecilia ‘CeCe’ Gutierrez, 53, in 2020 who has 134,000 followers on Instagram and describes herself as an ‘entrepreneur, nurse and philanthropist’. She runs a medical spa and has appeared on the VH1 reality show Basketball Wives LA.
Scott and CeCe Gutierrez tied the knot during a lavish wedding ceremony in 2020
Scott lives in a $2.4 million house located 28 miles northwest of the Crypto.com Arena in downtown LA, the Lakers home court.
The 4,400 sq. ft property, built in 1996, has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a swimming pool and basketball half-court.
According to the suit, ‘Despite having an affirmative duty to take reasonable steps to protect Plaintiff from foreseeable risks of harm, Campbell Hall and its agents acted outrageously by failed to intercede, or otherwise taking any reasonable steps or to implement reasonable safeguards to avoid the sexual assault committed by Scott.’
Attorneys representing the school declined to comment to Daily Mail about the case.
Located in the Studio City area of LA, the school costs $54,000 per year for students in grades six through 12.
It bills itself as a ‘gender-inclusive day school’ and a ‘community of inquiry committed to academic excellence and to the nurturing of decent, loving, and responsible human beings.’
A number Hollywood celebrities have passed through its classrooms in their teen years, including sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning, the Olsen sisters – Ashley, Mary-Kate and Elizabeth – director Paul Thomas Anderson, Modern Family actress Ariel Winter and Denzel Washington’s Tenet actor son John David Washington.
Hayley is seeking a trial by jury and damages of over $25,000, including loss of earnings, and attorney fees to be paid by Scott and Campbell Hall.
