Judge grants ex-USC assistant Todd McNair's motion for a new trial against NCAA
Todd McNair, the former USC assistant coach embroiled in a years-long defamation lawsuit against the NCAA, was granted a motion for a new trial by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Wednesday. The Los Angeles Times first reported the story.
Judge Frederick Shaller wrote there was not sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding in May 2018 that the NCAA did not defame McNair, who was the running backs coach for Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.
Shaller also ruled that the jury foreman should have been disqualified from McNair’s case. The foreman is an “attorney whose firm did appellate work for the NCAA in the case years earlier,” according to the Times.
“Permitting Juror No. 2 to remain on the jury and participate in deliberations and the verdict resulted in a miscarriage of justice and in Plaintiff being deprived of a fair trial,” Shaller wrote, per the Times. “Without Juror No. 2 it is likely a different outcome would have resulted.”
Shaller called the infractions committee’s report false, focusing on a phone call from sports marketer Lloyd Lake to McNair in January 2006. The judge noted issues with Lake’s answers and questions the investigators failed to ask. He called it “sloppy,” “botched,” “unprofessional” and “mistaken as to basic facts,” according to the Times.
“When the report was written, the actual and critical content of the questions and answers was changed and/or recharacterized,” Shaller wrote. “Also, improperly non-responsive and speculative responses by Lake were recorded as being true.”
The NCAA said Wednesday it will appeal Shaller’s decision.
“This is an extremely disappointing ruling from the trial court judge, who presided over the jury selection, four-week trial and multi-day juror deliberations,” NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said in a statement. “There is no basis to disregard the decision the citizens of Los Angeles County reached after careful deliberation. We will appeal this decision and continue to defend the ability of NCAA member schools to both create and enforce its rules.”
McNair was given a one-year “show-cause” penalty in June 2010 after the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions found that he engaged in “unethical conduct” with Bush. USC did not renew his contract and itself was hit with wide-ranging sanctions after the investigation into extra benefits given to the All-American.
McNair filed his lawsuit in 2011, alleging that the NCAA infractions committee libeled him in its final report by printing knowingly false information. A jury ruled against him in May and Shaller ruled in October that the show-cause penalty, which makes it difficult for coaches to stay at a school or move to another due to penalties incurred, was illegal.
McNair was hired last week by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as running backs coach. It’s his first job at the college or professional level since USC.
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