NCAA files motion to feds seeking info from first college basketball corruption trial
INDIANAPOLIS — In an effort to aid its investigation of corruption in college basketball, the NCAA filed a motion to intervene in the Southern District of New York District Court on Wednesday, formally seeking additional information from the first of three federal trials in the case.
The 19-page motion submitted to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan seeks to obtain “copies of exhibits referenced in open court during the trial, as well as an unredacted copy of the sentencing memorandum and its associated sealed exhibits filed by defendant James Gatto.”
Gatto, a former Adidas executive, was one of three defendants found guilty last fall. The other defendants were former Adidas consultant and Nike executive Merl Code Jr., and aspiring agent Christian Dawkins. The three are scheduled to be sentenced next week.
“Although not a party to the case, the NCAA has a strong interest in the proceedings given the role its rules played at trial and its responsibility to enforce those rules,” the NCAA motion says. “The requested materials will permit the NCAA to investigate potential rule violations, take enforcement action if warranted, and consider reforms to prevent future violations.”
In an interview with Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, NCAA executive vice president and chief legal officer Donald Remy said the association was “aggressively” seeking information to pursue potential rules violators. This filing is part of that pursuit.
“This is in conjunction with the NCAA’s new enforcement process in regard to the ability to import information from other proceedings,” said Atlanta-based attorney Stu Brown, a veteran of NCAA cases. “This is the NCAA’s legitimate effort under those new bylaws to get what they have identified and perceived as the critical and most important things.”
The NCAA motion said the association’s request is limited in scope, not intended to access all material acquired by the government in building its case. Specifically, the NCAA is seeking “access to twenty-four exhibits that were the subject of admissibility disputes, used to refresh the recollection of witnesses, or otherwise discussed by the parties on the public record during the trial, in addition to (Gatto’s) unredacted sentencing memorandum … ”
The NCAA motion notes that defense attorneys in the trial registered no objection to the association obtaining these materials. Prosecuting attorney Edward Diskant registered no opinion, the NCAA says, but deferred opinion until after seeing the filing.
The exhibits being sought are only identified by exhibit numbers and transcript citations in the motion, but are likely to include the following:
* A wiretap transcript read in court by one of Gatto’s attorneys in which LSU coach Will Wade and Dawkins were communicating about methods of landing a recruit by getting the player what he needs – “meaning money,” attorney Casey Donnelly said – in order to play at LSU.
Donnelly read the conversation this way:
“Would you want Balsa?” Dawkins asked.
“Oh, the big kid?” Wade responded.
Dawkins confirmed.
“OK, but there is other [expletive] involved in it,” Wade said. “Wait, I’ve got to shut the door … I can get you what you need, but it’s got to work.”
* A wiretap transcript of a conversation between Code and Kansas assistant coach Kurtis Townsend, pertaining to what it would take Kansas to sign high school star Zion Williamson.
According to that transcript, Townsend said:
“Hey, but between me and you, you know, he asked about some stuff. You know? And I said, ‘Well, we’ll talk about that, you decide.'”
Code: “I know what he’s asking for. He’s asking for opportunities from an occupational perspective, he’s asking for cash in the pocket and he’s asking for housing for him and his family.”
Townsend: “I’ve got to just try to work and figure out a way because if that’s what it takes to get him here for 10 months, we’re going to have to do it some way.”
Williamson wound up at Duke and has been the biggest star in college basketball this season.
* Transcripts read in court to Brian Bowen Sr., father of recruit Brian Bowen Jr., regarding statements he made about financial offers to sign his son. The NCAA motion makes specific mention of a section of Gatto’s sentencing memoranda that pertains to Bowen Sr. having “received multiple monetary offers in exchange for his son’s agreement to play basketball.” That section of the document has been redacted.
Acquiring those materials would greatly enhance the NCAA’s chances of pursuing allegations — and doing so in a timely manner. Should the court order in favor of the NCAA, it is seeking its requested information within five business days.
Brown characterized the NCAA’s move as unsurprising, but still significant.
“It looks to me like the NCAA and enforcement staff is going to use that information in what they perceive as a credible set of building blocks for further investigations,” Brown said.
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