Former Houston Rocket and NBA Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy made his initial court appearance yesterday in the child molestation criminal case that was filed against him earlier this week. Murphy’s criminal case landed in the court of District Judge Mike McSpadden, one of the most well-thought of criminal district judges in Houston.
Virtually since the charges arose earlier this week, Murphy and his attorney, Rusty Hardin, have been making the rounds of local radio and television talk shows proclaiming Murphy’s innocence and alleging that his daughters’ accusations against him amount to extortion. Accordingly, I found the following part of today’s Chronicle article rather, might we say, interesting:

Murphy and Hardin have suggested the daughters may have fabricated the charges because of greed.
Hardin has said three of the daughters claim Murphy took about $60,000 in retirement money left by their mother after she died in a car accident.

“They certainly told Calvin that if he didn’t give them that money, he would be sorry,” Hardin said earlier this week.

On Wednesday, he declined to comment on the possibility of extortion.

“This case puts (Murphy) in the untenable position of having to be publicly critical of his own family,” Hardin said. “He doesn’t want to participate in bashing the children publicly.”

But he hinted that some of Murphy’s other children would do just that. He said those who support their father will come forward soon to denounce the accusers.

Let’s get this straight. Murphy and Hardin first publicly accuse Murphy’s accusing daughters of being greedy extortionists. Then, Hardin states that they are not going to do so because the “case puts (Murphy) in the untenable position of having to be publicly critical of his own family.” But then he follows up that statement with another one suggesting that Murphy’s other children will soon make public statements critical of the accusers.
H’mm. Something tells me that Murphy’s public relations campaign is not particularly well-thought out.