Ok people! Today the interview with Manti Te’o and Katie Couric airs and after that I am hoping this story goes away!!! But for now, of course the story has taken another turn. SMH.
The lawyer for the man who has been identified as behind the hoax, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, told the New York Daily News that his client disguised his voice and assumed the identity of Lennay Kekua to try to develop a relationship with Te’o.
According to ESPN:
Milton Grimes said that Te’o “thought it was a female he was talking with. It was Ronaiah as Lennay.”
Grimes said that Tuiasosopo wasn’t trying to hurt Te’o.
“This wasn’t a prank to make fun,” Grimes said, according to the newspaper. “It was establishing a communication with someone. … It was a person with a troubled existence trying to reach out and communicate and have a relationship.”
Grimes wouldn’t characterize the type of relationship Tuiasosopo wanted with the Heisman Trophy runner-up.
“I wouldn’t describe his issues at this time,” he said to the Daily News.
How could he get away with it, though? Tuiasosopo, 22, has had dramatic training, plays in a Christian band and even auditioned last year for the television show “The Voice.”
“Come on, Hollywood does it all the time,” Grimes said of his client pretending to be a woman. “People can do that.”
(Story Continues…)
