Ron Bell, an Arizona man who was convicted of orchestrating a plan to extort Georgia Tech by falsely accusing its former men's basketball coach, Josh Pastner, of assaulting his girlfriend, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison Wednesday.
Bell, from Oro Valley, Arizona, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit extortion. The government said Bell, who had been Pastner's friend, admitted he recruited a security guard who worked Georgia Tech basketball games to falsely claim that he witnessed Pastner assault Jennifer Pendley.
Bell had promised the security guard a share of what he alleged would be a $20 million settlement. «Ronald Bell tried to extort Georgia Tech and ruin the reputation of its basketball coach,» U.S.
attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement. «As federal prosecutors, we have a responsibility to the citizens of this district to pursue accountability and justice for crimes of sexual violence.