Alabama Recruiting Scandal Trial; Logan Young

[LightningRod]

Late afternoon update - nothing earth shattering.

Cash withdrawals are main topic in Young trial

By Gary Parrish
Contact
January 25, 2005

The prosecution has continued putting on its case this afternoon, spending the past several hours detailing each cash withdrawal from Logan Young’s checking account and each cash deposit into Lynn Lang’s checking account during the time the two were allegedly conspiring to get Albert Means to Alabama.

Deborah Kines, of Trust One Bank, went through each withdrawal from Young’s checking account, a total of 64 equaling $291,000. As of 3:45, Marie Woodson, of Union Planters Bank, was still detailing each deposit going into Lang’s checking account.

Young is charged in the criminal trial with paying Lang to ensure his star recruit, Albert Means, played for the Crimson Tide, among other things.

Earlier in the afternoon, the prosecution indicated it would be finished putting on its case when court is adjourned this afternoon. The defense is expected to begin either late today or first thing Friday morning.

Local Tennessee fan Roy Adams made his first official appearance in the case this morning.

A Wednesday night post on an Internet message board that caters to Tennessee fans, under the screen name "TennStud", detailed the day’s happenings, as posts have since this trial began. Among the things written were that TennStud had drinks after court adjourned with media members and jurors.

Defense attorney Jim Neal asked judge Daniel Breen to send a marshal after Adams to have him brought to the Clifford Davis Federal Building downtown to address this issue. Judge Breen declined, but when Adams arrived shortly before jurors were brought in, he was summoned to the podium and asked about this post.

Adams acknowledged that he does post under the name "TennStud," and that no one else used that name. However, he denied having contact with any juror and said that someone must have edited his post after he finished.

When the jury was brought in, Judge Breen asked if any of them had spoken with anybody about the case. They each indicated that they had not.

[LightningRod]

Prosecution rests and defense asks for acquittal.

Prosecution rests; defense says acquit

By Gary Parrish
Contact
January 28, 2005

The prosecution rested its case against Logan Young late Thursday, and the defense immediately asked for a judgment of acquittal.

Judge Daniel Breen will rule this morning. If the motion is granted, Young will be exonerated from a four-count indictment that charges he paid former Trezevant football coach Lynn Lang $150,000 to ensure Albert Means enrolled at Alabama.

"There is no proof in the record that there was a law prohibiting Lynn Lang from doing what he did," argued defense attorney Robert Hutton. "The government never had anybody testify that it is illegal for a high school coach to take money to recommend to a player where to go to college."

As an example, Hutton used University of Memphis basketball coach John Calipari and his agreement with adidas.

Hutton argued that Calipari is an employee of the state and a public official, and that he takes money from adidas for making his players wear adidas products.

So if that's not a crime, Hutton asked, why is it a crime for a high school teacher who is a public official (Lang) to take money from a Crimson Tide booster (Young) for making his player (Means) go to Alabama?

"This case is a frightening case," Hutton said. "Where does it end? Why couldn't Mr. Calipari be indicted? Why couldn't adidas be indicted?"

Hutton's motion capped a day of testimony featuring bank and phone records that seemed to have the jury drifting in and out of attention.

Aware this might happen, the prosecution prefaced this part of its case by telling jurors that the document introduction might get tedious. At any rate, Asst. U.S. Atty. Fred Godwin moved forward with the underlying theme being if the government can't show the actual fire, it can at least present a lot of smoke.

For instance, Godwin presented bank records belonging to Lang and Young from June 1999 to November 2000.

In that span, Young had 64 cash withdrawals totaling $291,050. Meanwhile, Lang made $47,269.99 in cash deposits, which did not include his paychecks from Memphis City Schools.

To wrap its case, and summarize it, the government called John Ford III, an FBI financial analyst who found 13 instances when a significant withdrawal was taken from Young's account and a significant deposit was put into Lang's account on the same or the next business day.

One example showed Young withdrawing $9,000 on April 13, 2000, and $4,000 on April 14, 2000. Lang made a cash deposit of $8,000 on April 14, 2000.

During cross examination, defense attorney Allan Wade asked a simple question.

"Is there any evidence that any of that money (in Lang's account) came from Logan Young?"

"No," answered Ford.

One of the lingering questions from Wednesday's testimony was why there were no records of phone calls between Young and Lang before June 2000. On Thursday, the prosecution produced witnesses to explain.

Lavonne Westbrooks, a BellSouth compliance assistant, testified that her company keeps records of local calls for "between 59 and 62 days." So because BellSouth answered an FBI subpoena on March 3, 2001, it was only able to produce records of Young's local calls dating to about Jan. 1, 2001.

FBI intelligence research analyst Cathy Williams testified she had Lang's cell phone records from Sprint, which indicated dozens of calls to Young from June 2000 to February 2001. But before March 2000, Lang had a Cricket phone for which no records could be obtained.

So, as Godwin pointed out, there is no way to tell if there were no calls or many calls between Young and Lang before March 2000.

-- Gary Parrish: 529-2365

[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."

[BucksFan27]

This is what I'm truly curious about...How does Tennessee and Phil Fulmer get blamed by Bama for this probation?

[stxbuck]

Originally Posted by goodguy

Yeah, that is who I meant. There's a name from the past, I forgot all about him. I think he coached at Memphis, which makes sense as to why he was recuiting Means.

Stobart-he was a WR coach for the Bengals. He might have coached under Coop as well, not sure on that one.

[LightningRod]

The NY Times has started reporting the events of this trial. Where is ESPN?

Former Georgia Coach Witness in Trial
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: January 28, 2005

Filed at 7:18 p.m. ET

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Former Georgia coach Jim Donnan told a jury Friday that he never offered money to a high school coach to try and get a commitment from his star football player.

Lynn Lang, the former head coach at Trezevant High School, testified earlier this week that he got offers of money and other perks from several schools before he accepted a $150,000 payoff from Memphis millionaire Logan Young to steer Albert Means to sign with Alabama in 2000.

Lawyers for Young, on trial on federal bribery and money laundering charges, called up Donnan and several other witnesses to poke holes in Lang's testimony. They also asked Judge Daniel Breen to throw out the charges against Young.

Lawyer Robert Hutton said the government failed to show that Lang was a public servant under state law or that his official duties prohibited taking money to influence a student's choice of a college. Breen said he would rule on the defense request when trial resumed Monday.

During testimony Friday, Donnan said he broke off discussions on Means when Lang started talking about wanting expensive cars. Lang previously testified that he got $700 cash from Donnan.

Donnan said Georgia gave Lang a $500 check for taking part in a football camp, and gave Means $194 to cover expenses for an NCAA approved visit.

``That's the only money that I'm aware of and we've got the canceled checks to prove it,'' Donnan said.

After his testimony, Donnan said in a courthouse hallway that he and several other coaches talked among themselves about the need for an NCAA review of recruiting at Alabama, including Means' signing.

The other coaches, he said, included Phillip Fulmer of Tennessee; Steve Spurrier formerly of Florida and now with South Carolina; Houston Nutt of Arkansas and former Mississippi coach David Cutcliffe, now an assistant at Notre Dame.

``We weren't for sure what happened,'' Donnan said. ``We were just talking about the need for it to be investigated.''

Donnan lost his job at Georgia in 2000.

Ivy Williams, a former assistant coach at Alabama, also denied suggesting that Means get a stand-in to take his college entrance exam before signing with the Crimson Tide. Lang said he was referred to Young by Williams, who suggested that Means have someone else take the entrance exam for him.

Means has acknowledged in court that he did not take the exam himself and lied about it to a federal grand jury.

Williams said he helped recruit Means in 1999 and was told he had already taken the exam.

Means stayed at Alabama for one football season before transferring to Memphis after reports of a payoff to Lang became public.

Alabama's recruitment of Means became part of an NCAA investigation that led to sanctions in 2002 depriving the team of scholarships and bowl eligibility.

Williams and Ronnie Cottrell, another assistant coach who lost his job at Alabama after the investigation, have filed a $60 million defamation lawsuit against the NCAA over the investigation.

Donnan Testifies

[jimotis4heisman]

I know this related to the 'bama scandal thread but,

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pionee...0763571.htm?1c

Price of recruit: 'At least' an SUV
A Memphis, Tenn., recruit's high school football coach wanted "at least" an SUV in return for the player's signature, former Georgia coach Jim Donnan testified Friday in federal court.

Donnan said that's when the Bulldogs stopped pursuing Albert Means, whose well-publicized 2000 recruitment is the subject of an Alabama booster's federal racketeering trial.

Donnan's testimony came in the fifth day of the trial of Memphis millionaire Logan Young, who is accused of paying former Trezevant High School coach Lynn Lang $150,000 to make sure that Means signed with Alabama.

Alabama was charged with NCAA recruiting violations in the Means case and eventually received sanctions that included a loss of scholarships, plus a two-year ban from bowl participation.

[LightningRod]

For a braek from the insanity of recruiting to the sublime of buying recruits, the judge denies the defense motion for acquittal. The defense continues to call its witnesses this afternoon.

Judge denies acquittal in Young trial

By Gary Parrish
Contact
January 31, 2005

Judge Daniel Breen ruled this morning to deny a defense motion for a judgment of acquittal in the trial against Logan Young.

The defense had argued that there was no law stating that former Trezevant High coach Lynn Lang could not take money to advise a player to go to college somewhere.

"This is a criminal case, and my client is facing jail time," said defense attorney Robert Hutton. "The crime has to be clear. At the time it wasn’t clear. It may be clear now, but it wasn’t clear then."

Breen ultimately disagreed and allowed the case to proceed.

The defense is expected to begin calling witnesses soon, among them former University of Memphis coach Rip Scherer and Richard Ernsberger, author of the book, "Bragging Rights."