A woman who police say is connected to Dallas Mavericks' star Dirk Nowitzki has been arrested on fraud charges at his Preston Hollow home.

Dallas police officers arrested 37-year-old Cristal Taylor Wednesday morning at Nowitzki's house on a fraud warrant. She remained in the Dallas County jail Wednesday afternoon.

The Dallas Mavericks and Nowitzki have declined a comment, but sources say Nowitzki will address the situation Thursday at the team's practice.

Sources tell CBS 11 News that a private investigator hired by Nowitzki told police that Nowitzki and Taylor have some sort of relationship, but the nature of that relationship is unclear. Nowitzki hired the private investigator to check into her background, sources say, and the investigator found that she was using an alias.

Kim Leach, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, tells CBS 11 News that Taylor has at least eight aliases: Chrystal Ann Taylor, Crystal Ann Taylor, Debra Johnson, Shana Mancini, Krista Santiago, Crystal Ann Santiago, Cristal Westerhaus and Crista A. Westerhays.

Dallas Sheriff's office records show Taylor has an outstanding warrant for theft of service from the Beaumont area and one for a probation violation from St. Charles County, Missouri.

Sources say the FBI is also involved in this case.

The incident comes at a critical time for Nowitzki and the Mavericks, who are down 2-0 in their second-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets.

Stay with CBS 11 News online and on television for more on this developing story.


[Edited 5/6/09 20:22pm]
[Edited 6/19/09 10:10am]

Damn dirk diggler.

Hot.diggity.mess.

One of my BFFs works at Saks and told me weeks ago that she came in there with some suspicious looking chick and they tried to do a return but lied about who bought the item and said they didn't have a receipt but then produced it. Yeah, that's all kinds of fishy. But homegirl's been shopping on Dirk's credit card so she must've been putting it DOWN!

Dirk-Dawg! Dabblin' in da chocolate! Aw dizzamn! ! Dirk, you ain't gotta go and get a hoodrat though, playa!

MuthaFunka said:

Girl, told him she was Brazilian. She be at all the games too. Said her name was Cristal Trevino. Guess that was an alias the FBI missed.

SCNDLS said:

She straight outta Oak Cliff!

MuthaFunka said:

You di'int KNOW???

SCNDLS said:

MuthaFunka said:

Now we know that they were engaged and she's pregnant. I feel sorry for him cuz he must have loved her BUT had reservations hence the PI doing a background check and now this, NOW.

SCNDLS said:

Damn, that's the best the Dirkster could do???? Yeesh!!!!

uPtoWnNY said:

She looks kinda better in a non-mugshot context.

Yall cold.....being a celeb is a *****.

Graycap23 said:

That's the price of fame. Your business is always out in the street.

uPtoWnNY said:

I know I certainly would never want 2 be a celeb. I'd be like Sean Penn was a few years ago.

SCNDLS said:

Looks like Luis Guzman in drag.

uPtoWnNY said:

You.ain't.RIGHT!

SCNDLS said:

Damn. I guess the marriage's off?

MuthaFunka said:

My sources tell me that a date was already set and she was rocking a HUGE diamond. So, he meant bidness.

SCNDLS said:

Poor Dirky. Got ahold of that prime sista pussy and he lost his mind.

MuthaFunka said:

It's a powerful thang, or so I've heard.

SCNDLS said:

Lawd, the news is saying ol' girl worked in the "adult entertainment" industry and he had bought her a $250,000 engagement ring. Dirk, Dirk, Dirk . . . Also, they said that his inner circle urged him to investigate her when they were drafting the prenup and when he confronted her she flipped out. Lawd . . .

SCNDLS said:

Dirk's "street game" is pretty wack .

SCNDLS said:

"Adult entertainment" industry - oh shiat!!!!

Ol' girl, huh? Hmmm.....someone needs to check on that. I'm not totally convinced.

Hey Dirk, in the future, heed the words of Bo Diddley - "know who you're dealin' with!"

MuthaFunka said:

Too bad I didn't come up on him first. Shoooo, I got good credit and woulda passed the background check with flying colors. A $250k engagement ring might make me rethink my "No Pink Willies" policy.

Nowtizki Was Engaged, Bought $250K Ring

The arrest of a mysterious woman at the posh Preston Hollow home of Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki is still sending aftershocks across North Texas.


Enlarge Photo Police arrested Cristal Taylor at the home of Dirk Nowitzki Wednesday afternoon.
Dirk Addresses Personal Problems

Watch VideoMavericks star Dirk Nowitzki talks for the first time about Cristal Taylor, his reported girlfriend, who was arrested at his home on May 6, 2009.
Cristal Taylor, 37, was arrested Wednesday and while police refused to speculate on the woman's relationship to Nowitzki, sources told NBCDFW and other media outlets that the woman was his fiance.

One source told NBCDFW "she'd been coming around here for years," and another source reported Nowitzki bought Taylor a $250,000 engagement ring.

Those close to Nowitzki said it was his inner circle of teammates and long-time counselors that advised the NBA star to hire a private investigator to do a background check on Taylor in preparation of a pre-nuptial agreement.

That's when the P.I. discovered the details of Taylor's checkered past. Nowitzki's inner circle counseled him to not only break up with Taylor, but to call police.

Investigators said Taylor was taken into custody on several outstanding warrants at about 11 a.m. Wednesday -- before Nowitzki and the team returned from Denver. The first was a probation violation from a corrections department in Missouri, the second a theft of service from Jefferson County.

Nowitzki declined to discuss the matter during a news conference Thursday.

"It's pretty obvious that I'm going through a tough time in my personal life right now, but like I always have, I want to kind of keep my private life private," Nowitzki said. "I'm not at the stage where I can talk about it yet and feel comfortable talking about it. At this point, I just can't talk about it."

Nowitzki then answered some basketball-related questions about the Western Conference semifinal series against Denver, which the Mavericks trail 2-0 going into Game 3 on Saturday. He also said the incident wouldn't affect his play.

"I'll be ready," Nowitzki said.

The eight-minute session ended after a series of rapid-fire questions about his relationship with Taylor and reports that she is pregnant. In reply, Nowitzki offered three times, "I'm not commenting on that," then added, "Any more basketball questions?"

Taylor's mother, Shirley Taylor, said she has met Nowitzki but would not comment on his relationship with her daughter. She also would not comment on rumors that her daughter is pregnant.

"Things just get blown out and tossed around," she said. "I don't know. I am just saying, I don't know."

Shirley Taylor said her daughter's arrest has been "like a nightmare."

"I talked to her, and she said she is doing fine, you know, OK," she said.

She said she has gotten several calls from her daughter.

Taylor remained in Dallas County Jail on Thursday on $20,000 bond. Her mother said she did not know if she will post her daughter's bond.

"You know, I really don't know anything yet," she said. "I really don't. I am going to wait for her to get back in touch with me, and hopefully, it will be tomorrow and then I will be able to know something."

A 2006 indictment alleging theft of service in Jefferson County in southeast Texas listed eight aliases for Taylor, who was accused of not paying for dental services.

Beaumont dentist Joel Smith said Taylor owes him $10,000 for dental work. He told a Beaumont television station that he was surprised by Wednesday's arrest.

Smith said he pressed charges because more and more of his patients are failing to pay. An arrest warrant was issued late last year.

Booking records show Taylor has used at least eight different aliases in the past including Chrystal Ann Taylor, Crystal Ann Taylor, Debra Johnson, Shana Mancini, Krista Santiago, Crystal Ann Santiago, Cristal Westerhaus and Crista A. Westerhays.

The probation violation originated in St. Charles County, Mo., and stemmed from Taylor pleading guilty in 1999 to two counts of forgery and two counts of felony stealing, county prosecutor Jack Banas said. Taylor, who was accused of passing bad checks through a bank, had multiple five-year prison sentences suspended, Banas said.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the Dallas Mavericks even cautioned Nowitzki about his relationship with Taylor and that he had suspicions about her long before her arrest Wednesday.

He put a ring on it but can't bail her ass out??? That's fucked up.

SCNDLS said:

Guard ya grill, bitch!

MuthaFunka said:

I was confused about that tho. Since when can you go to jail for not paying a dental bill? Wouldn't that just go to collections? Dentists done got gangsta!