Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr.’s girlfriend denies he strangled, punched her in NYC hotel
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Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr.’s ex-girlfriend has vehemently denied allegations the NBA player relentlessly beat and choked her during a fight in their Big Apple hotel room – telling The Post on Tuesday: “It’s not true.”
Former WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, 26, set the record straight a day after Manhattan prosecutors dropped one of the charges against Porter – admitting the pro baller didn’t break his then-girlfriend’s neck in the Sept. 11 Midtown hotel beatdown.
“My injuries don’t support any of those claims,” Gondrezick said in an exclusive interview, adding that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and cops were to blame for the inaccuracies.
“He didn’t hit me. He never balled his fists up and hit me,” Gondrezick insisted. “And he definitely didn’t punch me in the face numerous times. That is a lie. I don’t have any injuries to support that.”
Gondrezick – who also shot down claims Porter had a history of abusing her – confirmed she is no longer dating the hoopster, noting she hasn’t been in contact with him since his arrest because a protective order was only lifted Monday.
Porter, 23, was slapped with a slew of assault charges last month after prosecutors said he left Gondrezick with a fractured vertebra in the wake of the alleged attack at the four-star Millennium Hilton New York Hotel.
But Assistant District Attorney Mirah Curzer conceded during a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday that the injury – which has since been determined to be a congenital defect – wasn’t actually caused by the NBA star.
As a result, the DA’s office said it was tossing Porter’s second-degree assault charge due to “insufficient evidence.”
Prosecutors have said that Gondrezick told cops Porter struck her multiple times with a closed fist – leaving her with an inches-long gash above her right eye.
Porter then allegedly “forcefully” squeezed her neck with his hands, which caused “her to experience difficulty breathing, redness and bruising to her neck, and substantial pain,” the criminal complaint against him states.
The alleged beating only ended when Gondrezick — who used to play for the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky — fled the room and was found bloodied and bruised by hotel employees in the hall, prosecutors said.
Gondrezick, however, claimed that the DA’s office didn’t wait to interview her, or get access to her full medical records, before releasing details of the alleged attack and of her injuries.
“It happened very fast, not to the degree of what was reported,” she told The Post on Tuesday. “And it was an argument that occurred in the room for not even 10 seconds”
Prosecutors were informed of her wounds only after a cop overheard doctors discussing possible causes of her injuries as she was being treated at the hospital, Gondrezick said.
“We have given them numerous opportunities to come clean and to fix false information but they have yet to do so,” Gondrezick said of the DA’s office.
“My privacy, or my relationship, shouldn’t be publicized to catapult careers.”
Her lawyer, Robert Hantman, added they had both liaised with the DA’s office in recent weeks to “clarify the record.”
“It shouldn’t be dramatized just because he’s a basketball player, she is a basketball player and they are a celebrity-type couple,” Hantman told The Post.
Asked if she had plans to try and reconcile with Porter, Gondrezick said: “I am not in a position to make that decision right now. I’m just trying to defend my truth and ultimately get my life back and protect my safety.”
“This experience only happened to me. It didn’t happen to anyone else,” she added.
The DA’s office didn’t address Gondrezick’s claims when contacted by The Post, instead pointing to the outcomes of the court proceedings a day earlier.
Porter, who has been free on $75,000 bail, still faces charges of second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault.
He is due back in court on Nov. 27.
Meanwhile, Porter is set to become a free agent in the wake of the allegations after the Rockets said Tuesday they were trading him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, ESPN reported.
Oklahoma, however, plan on releasing Porter and will pay out the $16.9 million remaining on his contract, according to the outlet.
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