The Manti Te'o hoax has taken yet another bizarre turn.
Yesterday, ESPN was able to track down a copy of Manti Te'o's cell phone records to prove that he did, in fact, spend more than 500 hours on the phone talking to someone that he thought to be his girlfriend Lennay Kekua between May and September of last year. But, now, we know exactly who it was that the Notre Dame linebacker was actually talking to all that time. According to Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's lawyer Milton Grimes, who spoke with the New York Daily News late yesterday, the voice on the other end of the line during just about all of the calls between Te'o and "Kekua" was none other than Tuiasosopo himself. As it turns out, Tuiasosopo has extensive vocal training that he used to fool Te'o for more than four months.
"It was Ronaiah as Lennay," Grimes told the Daily News. "Come on, Hollywood does it all the time. People can do that."
Grimes also explained that Tuiasosopo wasn't simply trying to prank Te'o by creating "Lennay Kekua." He was also trying to build some sort of real relationship with him.
"This wasn't a prank to make fun," he explained. "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 said Tuiasosopo will speak out and tell his side of the story sometime soon. But, all we can say right now is...WTF?!? If this Manti Te'o hoax didn't creep you out before, it certainly does now. This has just gotten too weird for words.
[via NY Daily News]
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