[LightningRod]

Afternoon update. Trial is in recess until Monday morning. Short blurb at the end about Donnan testifying this afternoon.

A motion for a judgment of acquittal pending in Young trial

By Gary Parrish
Contact
January 28, 2005

As the Logan Young trial adjourned for the weekend, a motion for a judgment of acquittal was still pending and the defense’s attempt to discredit Lynn Lang under way.

"I’m going to let you go home for the weekend," Judge Daniel Breen told jurors at 12:18 Friday afternoon. "I’ll ask you to be back here at 9:45 Monday morning."

The defense opened its case at about 10 a.m., just after Breen allowed the prosecution to re-open its case in order to allow former Supt. Johnnie B. Watson to testify Lang had no right to accept money for steering Albert Means to Alabama.

The defense's first witness was former Alabama assistant Ivy Williams, who testified that, contrary to Lang's testimony, he never advised the former Trezevant High coach Lang to get someone to take Means's ACT. The strategy for the defense, as will be the case through next week, was to impeach Lang's testimony and create a reasonable doubt as it pertains to his credibility.

However, on cross examination Asst. U.S. Atty. Fred Godwin attacked Williams's credibility.
Godwin took Williams's NCAA and grand jury testimony, and found multiple inconsistent statements. Godwin then got Williams to acknowledge speaking by phone to Young more than 200 times in 1999-2000, but he denied ever discussing recruiting.

"So you were the recruiting coordinator of Alabama, and Mr. Young is a big Alabama fan, and you talked several hundred times but you never discussed any recruitment of any player?" asked Godwin.

"No," answered Williams. Then he offered an explanation.
"My mom was really ill in 1999," Williams said. "We could've been talking about that."

Former Georgia coach Jim Donnan also took the stand. He testified that he never paid Lang any illegitimate money, but acknowledged Lang asked for SUVs and cash while Donnan and an assistant visited Trezevant in January 2000.

"(Lang) definitely had his hand out," Donnan said. "I told my assistant that we were out of here."