By Nicole Bode
DNAinfo Senior Editor
MANHATTAN — A former WABC-TV sportscaster accused of raping a 14-year-old runaway invoked disgraced golf champion Tiger Woods in his own defense and claimed he was just trying to help when he invited the girl and her friend into his Midtown apartment, the New York Post reported.
A day after Marvell Scott pleaded not guilty to indictment charges of rape, patronizing a prostitute and endangering the welfare of a child, the former television anchor said he only approached the girl on a sidewalk near his apartment because she was hysterically crying.
"The fact of the matter is that one of the girls was crying profusely. She was obviously in great distress," Scott, 36, told the Post.
"I had no idea they were so young. If I had know I would have called child services," he added.
The TV anchorman left news last year and has been trying to start up a private sports medicine practice, a prospect that has dimmed since his indictment.
"Potential colleagues are worried," Scott told the Post. "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.”
Prosecutors told a very different tale in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday, where Scott was charged with soliciting the underage prostitute and having sex with her in his Times Square high-rise apartment while her 16-year-old friend was in the same room.
Police visited Scott’s apartment nearly a year after the incident, in April 2009. They’ve been investigating ever since, prosecutors said. Scott’s lawyer said they have no DNA evidence to back their claims.
Scott was released on $10,000 bail Tuesday.
He claimed he never had sex with the girl, and told the Post the charges were cooked up as a result of a con job by “criminals and liars.”
Prosecutors said the victim ran away from her Albany home the day before she met Scott, and that she headed into the city to celebrate her 14th birthday with friends. She agreed to prostitute herself because she needed money for food, prosecutors said.
The victim was "very scared, very reluctant to go through with the act," Assistant District Attorney Lisa Friel said.
Prosecutors said the girl begged Scott to "please stop," but "He said, 'Just a little more.'”
Scott is due back in court March 25.
