Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, one of the principal figures in the film, was alleged to have molested a teenage girl while playing for the Phoenix Suns in the 1990s.
Advertisement
“Down in the Valley” was scheduled to air October 20th.
“We are re-evaluating the content presentation of it and delaying the premiere”, said John Dahl, the vice president and executive producer of ESPN Films and Original Content. “When [director] Jason Hehir and we collectively agree that the film is ready and we are comfortable with it, then we will pick that air date”.
Monday night, preceding the showing of the film, Johnson spoke to a crowd outside the theater, asserting that there was no “there there” to the allegations, adding that ESPN had the right to cancel the nationwide release but he expected the release to eventually happen.
Johnson has replied to questions of responsibility in the past by saying the Phoenix Police investigation in 1996 led to no charges.
The renewed attention to the allegations come as the mayor weighs his political future. Video of her allegations were posted in recent days on Deadspin’s website.
We have reached out to Johnson for comment.
The film made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and was shown last month at another festival in California.
Dahl was uncertain whether or not ESPN will re-approach the film with new interviews, but he was also emphatic that it wasn’t a film based on Johnson. That’s what drew us to this story …
ESPN sent a statement to the Sacramento Bee stating the same thing, although neither Dahl nor the statement mentioned the specifics of the allegations, which first surfaced in 2008 and were thrown back into the spotlight recently with a series of stories penned by Deadspin’s Dave McKenna about a woman named Mandi Koba.
Advertisement
“What I said was, I thought it was time for [Johnson] to step aside and not seek reelection and allow us to move forward”, Democratic Party chair Kerri Ashbury. “We take the reputation of not only ESPN but people involved in the film and the situations involved in the film very seriously”.
