Rashid Bryd, 'Semi-Pro' actor, ex-pro basketball player, gets 90 years for sexual assault
Rashid Byrd attends CytoDyn's Pro 140 Awareness Event for HIV and Cancer Prevention at The Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood on February 28, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for CytoDyn’s Pro)
LOS ANGELES - Former pro basketball player Rashid Byrd has been sentenced to 90 years to life in state prison for a series of violent sexual assaults that occurred in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties from 2015 to 2020, the Los Angeles Police Department announced Saturday.
Byrd, who has been in police custody since his arrest by the LAPD for sexual assault on Sept. 20, 2020, was sentenced Friday, police said.
The LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division's Special Assault Section began an investigation after a victim came forward to report that she had been sexually assaulted in 2019. During the course of their investigation, detectives discovered Byrd had been arrested for sexually assaulting a young woman in the state of Washington in 2005 and had been convicted of a sexual assault involving a different victim in 2010, police said.
According to Byrd's victims, although he was initially charming, he subsequently forced them into a variety of sex acts.
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"He started as a charmer, playing up his status as an athlete and pseudo-celebrity, but that quickly faded into rapes and violence," said Detective Dara Brown, the lead investigator on the case.
"The LAPD is grateful for the brave women who came forward to tell their stories," Brown added. "While this investigation has gone on for years, we are thankful that Byrd is no longer on the streets."
The 7-foot-1 inch Byrd played 22 games for the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League in the 2008-09 season, averaging 4.7 points per game. He appeared in the 2008 Will Ferrell-starring basketball comedy "Semi-Pro," portraying a member of the fictional American Basketball Association team at the center of the film, the Flint Tropics.
Brown said the LAPD attempted locate all of Byrd's victims and asked anyone with information regarding his crimes to contact her at 213-486-6840 or email RHDTIPLINE@LAPD.ONLINE.