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As the college basketball season kicks off, things aren’t going too smoothly for Coppin State University.
The Maryland-based school’s assistant basketball coach has been accused of catfishing a player online and persuading him to send him sending lude photos and texts, and eventually blackmailing him into videotaping himself having sex.
But things escalated more when the assistant coach, named Lucian Brownlee, went even further and published all the x-rated content he got from the student, Ibn Williams, online. The 22-year-old says that Brownlee convinced him he was a woman who wanted a relationship with him. Williams’ attorney Daniel Epstein asserts that Brownlee was indeed the person behind the messages, saying, “Our strong belief is that Lucian [himself] was the catfisher.”
In the suit, Williams says he was first contacted by the catfish, pretending to be a woman during his freshman year at Coppin State, and soon after, the request for intimate photos began, according to Baltimore Brew.
He “was enticed into sending images of himself to this person of a sexual nature that [he] believed were private and in the context of a developing romantic relationship,” the lawsuit reads.
But after the two began conversing and sexual pictures were sent, the person started to blackmail him, and Williams feared losing all the success he’d earned as a college basketball player, so he obliged.
So, “in fear of losing his place in the basketball program, his tuition and room and board payments. . . [Williams] continued to respond to the person messaging him in a futile attempt to appease his tormentor.”
Then in 2019, Williams found out that Brownlee received the lude content from the “woman” and then ordered the two to have sex with each other.
The drama also involved Juan Dixon, Coppin State University’s head basketball coach and husband of Real Housewives of Potomac star Robyn Dixon.
Dixon’s been named in the lawsuit for not taking action against his staffer, Brownlee, for sexual harassment and exposing his private videos. When Williams’ x-rated were published online for refusing to engage in sexual acts with the catfisher, Dixon allegedly still wanted the player to come to practice.
He “admitted that Lucien [sic] Brownlee was mentally ill or otherwise emotionally imbalanced and that his history was known to the coach, [Athletic Director Derek] Carter and the school,” reads the lawsuit.
Dixon has yet to comment on the allegations or being named in the suit.
