Judge rules that case involving Oro Valley couple, Josh Pastner will proceed

A Pima County Superior Court judge has rejected a request for a 90-day delay in court proceedings involving an Oro Valley couple who has accused Georgia Tech basketball coach Josh Pastner of sexual assault.

Ron Bell and Jennifer Pendley say they cannot find a lawyer to represent them after their previous attorneys quit. Judge Brenden Griffin told the couple on Tuesday that they’ve had ample time to find new lawyers, and that going forward they will be treated as if they are representing themselves.

Bell and Pendley have until Aug. 7 to respond to requests for legal filings; the judge has set a hearing date for Sept. 4.

Pastner filed a lawsuit against the couple in January, saying they’d been trying to blackmail him for months. In response to the suit, Bell and Pendley filed a counterclaim, alleging that Pastner sexually assaulted Pendley in a Houston hotel room in 2016.

Last week, Pastner’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the counterclaim. Griffin denied the motion on Tuesday, meaning both cases will move forward.

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Bell and Pendley told the judge on Tuesday that they reached out to more than 60 attorneys in Tucson, and dozens more in Phoenix and neighboring states. None, they said, would take their case. The couple’s previous attorneys, Tucson’s Paul Gattone and Ashley Gilpin, told the court last month that they “cannot ethically” remain involved in the case.

In a motion to withdraw, the attorneys said they believed the couple could have fabricated the sexual assault claim. Pastner’s attorneys say conversations between Bell and Pendley, recorded while Bell was in Pima County jail earlier this year, show that Pendley’s claim was “false and maliciously concocted.”

An independent investigation paid for by Georgia Tech has cleared Pastner of wrongdoing.

Bell and Pendley spent part of Tuesday’s hearing asking the judge legal questions, including how they could get their files from Gattone and where to obtain legal filings. Griffin explained he could not answer, then referred them to the legal library a few floors below the sixth-floor legal courtroom.

Before Georgia Tech, Pastner, 40, coached at Memphis from 2009-16. He spent the 2002-08 seasons as an assistant to Arizona’s Lute Olson. As a player, Pastner was a member of the Wildcats’ 1997 national championship team.