NBA Star Got Sexual Favors

Pro basketball star Patrick Ewing testified Monday that he was twice provided with sexual favors at the Gold Club while the club's owner and manager watched.

Ewing, who signed as a free-agent center last week with the Orlando Magic, said he had visited the Atlanta strip club about 10 times, and was given special attention when owner Steve Kaplan and manager Thomas "Ziggy" Sicignano were present.

Later, a former stripper testified under a plea agreement that she performed sex acts or witnessed other dancers performing sexual acts on celebrities including former National Football League MVP Terrell Davis and Philadelphia 76er Dikembe Mutombo.

Ewing said he first visited the club in 1996 when he was in Atlanta for the Olympics. He was escorted to a VIP room and Kaplan, a fan of Ewing's former team, the New York Knicks — and Sicignano, who was later fired, came in to meet him.

"The girls danced, started fondling me, I got aroused, they performed oral sex," Ewing said. "I hung around a little bit and talked to them, then I left."

Ewing said he did not pay for the sex or anything else at the club. "I was told it was taken care of," he said.

Under cross-examination by Kaplan's attorney, Steve Sadow, Ewing testified that he never felt that he was involved in an act of prostitution.

Prosecutors say Kaplan used the lure of sex to attract professional athletes and celebrities while cheating customers to funnel cash to New York's Gambino crime family. He and six others are charged with obstruction of justice, credit card fraud, loan sharking and other charges. The trial began with jury selection in late April.

Sicignano testified against Kaplan and the others as part of a plea agreement.

Ewing said his second Gold Club sexual encounter was in 1997 or 1998. He said either Kaplan or Sicignano told the women to "go ahead and take care of him." He said the two sat beside him while the dancers performed oral sex on him.

Ewing said the men also offered to have a dancer accompany him to his hotel for sex, but he declined.

He testified for about 25 minutes and then immediately left the courthouse. He did not testify about any other players having sex with dancers.

Former stripper Jana Pelnis testified that Kaplan paid her $400 after she and another dancer put on a sex show for Ewing. "I was never commanded to do anything, but it was encouraged," she said.

Pelnis, 29, said that on one occasion she and two other dancers performed oral sex on Mutombo, one of 20 winners of the 1999 President's Service Awards, the nation's highest honor for volunteer service. Calls to Mutumbo's spokesman, David Falk, were not immediately returned.

Kaplan paid her after such encounters, but sometimes the customers also paid her, Pelnis said.

She said that after the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl in January 1999, she performed a sex act on Davis while Kaplan watched. Davis paid her $200 and Kaplan also paid her, Pelnis said.

Davis' sokesman Neil Schwartz declined to comment on the allegation.

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