Basketball team’s co-owner jailed on theft charge

The co-owner of the Atlanta Vision basketball team had his first appearance hearing in Forsyth County Monday on a theft by deception charge.

Quentin Townsend, who also is president and chief operating officer for the American Basketball Association, was jailed Friday and given a hefty $600,000 bond.

The charge has “something to do with an investment scheme,” said Karleen Chalker, spokeswoman for Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. She said the police report was not immediately available Monday morning.

Townsend, 32, of Snellville, could not be reached for comment.

The arrest comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed against Townsend in September by two of his former business partners, who allege he cheated them out of $200,000.

Carter Patterson and Brian Richey, operating as Jayhawk Sports, say Quentin Townsend defrauded them of money under the pretense of getting a team into the NBA Development League. The D-League, as it is known, is the official minor league of the NBA.

Based in Duluth, the Atlanta Vision play in the American Basketball Association.

According to the lawsuit, filed in September, D-League officials rejected overtures by Townsend after discovering he was tied to the ABA, citing the NBA has no working agreement with that league.

Even after the D-League rebuffed him, the suit alleges Townsend continued to solicit funds from Patterson and Richey, also co-owners of the Vision, to obtain a franchise.

Townsend also forged a letter and signature, the lawsuit claims, from the D-League’s director of basketball operations and player personnel Chris Alpert stating the league’s intention to establish a franchise in Atlanta.

— Staff writer Gracie Bonds Staples contributed to this article.