Chris Andersen of the Miami Heat has officially discovered he was the victim of a Manti Te'o-like scheme. "Birdman" was the center of a year-long investigation when Colorado authorities raided his home for clues surrounding a relationship with an underaged girl. Andersen has now been cleared of all charges that, at one point, risked his NBA career. ESPN reports the Heat star was instead a victim of an Internet scheme.
"We were always confident that Chris was innocent but we just couldn't figure out what had happened," Andersen's lawyer, Mark Bryant, said via ESPN.com. "It turned out that it was a Manti Te'o situation. It was Manti Te'o on steroids."
The way the story unfolded was complicated. A woman used a social media group to fool two people without them knowing. Identified by the Denver Post as Shelly Lynn Chartier, the woman posed as a female fan, writing multiple letters to Andersen. She went to visit the star in Colorado, representing herself as 21. She became upset with his lack of interest and made threats of retaliation if he did not give her financial benefits.
Authorities attempted to search Andersen's house looking for an I.P. address that matched those of the corresponding emails, but they came up with nothing. After a long investigation, authorities met with Andersen to inform him he had been involved in an Internet hoax, as the female was acting as a middle-man, attempting to be two different people.
"It was right out of CSI with all the charts," Bryant said. "When we walked in there both pretty hostile, it had been 15 months since this happened and we were cooperating but we hadn't heard anything. Chris had a pretty good scowl."
Bryant notes that Andersen was shocked by the story he was unknowingly involved in. The Heat star was never arrested or formally charged in the case. The investigation played into the fact that Andersen sat out of the NBA for several offers before getting a contract with Miami. He was released by the Denver Nuggets around the time of the investigation and got no contract offers until the following January.
The Miami Heat released a statement saying they never once doubted the innocence of Andersen. They were expecting the end result would be that he was found not guilty and they are thrilled his name has been cleared of all potential charges. Andersen re-signed with the Heat during the summer, signing a $2.8 million two-year extension.
