Parker Offers Apology

Highly touted basketball recruit Richie Parker, whose sexual assault on a high school classmate turned him from prospect to pariah, settled a lawsuit filed by his victim and offered the girl his first public apology.

If Parker, 18, plays professional basketball, he agreed to share a portion of his earnings with the victim. Parker, who was rejected by three colleges over the incident, may play next year at George Washington University.

On Wednesday, he delivered a personal apology to his victim during a five-minute phone conversation.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard was subsequently thrown off his high school team and assigned to a school for troubled students. He will graduate later this month.

Parker has undergone counseling and therapy since the January 1994 incident, when he and another student forced the girl to perform oral sex in a stairwell at Manhattan Center high school. xxxx