On Tuesday, former WABC 7 sportscaster Marvell Scott pleaded not guilty to charges including statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl, with his lawyer claiming that he had been set up by a child prostitute and a pimp. Now Scott is speaking out, telling the Post, "I will definitely be vindicated in court. I have no doubt in my mind."
According to prosecutors, two girls—ages 14 and 16—ran away from upstate New York and were out of cash when they met a pimp in Times Square. The pimp then allegedly made a deal with Scott for the two girls, and Scott took the girls to his apartment on West 47th Street, where he allegedly assaulted the younger one. But Scott says he only invited the girls to his home because "one of the girls was crying profusely. She was obviously in great distress. I’m, in the medical profession, for me if you stop on the street and see someone in distress, it is not uncommon to try and find out what is going on."
He said something similar to the Daily News , adding that the girl asked to use his bathroom, "If the girl wasn't in some sort of immediate distress, I wouldn't have invited her up. I was trying to get to the bottom of why she was in so much distress and why she was crying. I'm a medical doctor. For me to lend a helping hand, it's not abnormal... It's pretty obvious that [the pimp] sent the girls to make money from me any way they could."
Scott points out he gave a sample of his DNA, which didn't match evidence (prosecutors say he used a condom), and says that the reason why he called the pimp a few days after the alleged incident will "come out when the time is right" (prosecutors say Scott was inquiring about seeing the 14-year-old again). He added to the Post that this case was hurting his attempts to start a sports medicine practice, "It’s going to be a challenge getting through this. I’m not like Tiger Woods, I can’t just stand through it and let it end. I have the same challenges that many other people would."
