Phone transcripts suggest charges against Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner were false

The release of new jailhouse phone calls between Ron Bell and Jennifer Pendley has led to Georgia Tech basketball head coach Josh Pastner’s attorneys to call for the dismissal of the case against him. Bell and Pendley are former friends of Pastner’s who accused him of sexual assault and sexual battery back in January.

The calls include heated exchanges between Bell and Pendley, which strongly suggest that the couple’s allegations against him were false. Included is the following quote from Bell during one such conversation, via an article from AJC:

“Don’t deviate from our plan,” [Bell] said in another call. “Don’t deviate from what I tell you. … Any deviation — I want to make this crystal clear — any deviation from what we’ve discussed today, that’s it, we’re never talking. I’m going to dump you right here while I’m in jail. … I’ll go to the press. You don’t want that, do you?”

Bell also told Pendley to stop going to sexual assault counseling, even threatening to go to the press and speak out against her allegations.

The news comes nearly a month after attorneys representing Bell and Pendley quit the case, claiming the couple had misled them about the nature of the allegations. Pastner was also cleared by an independent Title IX investigation in early June, meaning that the phone transcripts are likely one of the final dominos to fall in a saga that began with impermissible benefits provided by Bell to a pair of former Yellow Jackets.

Bell, who once called Pastner a lifesaver, was arrested in Arizona back in March under a fugitive warrant from the state of Georgia.