A little more background on Bruce Pearl

[Sheltiedave]

KM, if you read the transcript, you could see that Pearl was asking leading questions, and then the teen provided a monosyllabic answer.

The reason the NCAA totally disallowed the taped conversation from their consideration was twofold.

1) There were jurisdictional laws that opposed each other regarding disclosure of taping a phone conversation. In iowa, it was legal for one party to tape the other, without disclosure or consent. In Illinois, both parties had to consent.

2) No court of law would allow this edited tape to be entered as evidence, as it was leading, answers were not referenced to the questions, the editing precluded continuous accountable conversation, and it involved two parties of disparate status - an adult and an unemancipated child.

I recognize there are times when someone who is being browbeaten will will agree to something just to avoid an ugly social situation.

[Westy03]

Defending Bruce Pearl is an interesting hill to die on. 

 

[Quality Is Job 1]

Who's defending Bruce Pearl?

[Sheltiedave]

5 hours ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Who's defending Bruce Pearl?

Quality, while at Iowa, in a backhand fashion, it was Michael Slive.

Here is a good background on the lawyer carousel at the NCAA. They hire junior lawyers straight from law school, put them in compliance, And in a year or two, they are directing multiple university investigations.

They leave the NCAA after 5-8 years, and get hired by firms specializing in NCAA investigation defenses for schools.

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/sports/ncaabasketball/04ncaa.html

[Sheltiedave]

While written by a Tide fan, this diatribe is pretty good.

David Ridpath was the sacrificial goat at Marshall, who was hung out to dry by his administration, acting on the advice of none other than Rich Hilliard, the NCAA enforcement officer friend of Pearl’s. Hilliard left the NCAA and was hired by a sports firm in Indy specializing in ...NCAA compliance.

Ridpath successfully sued Marshall and Hilliard, for 200k and 25k, over the lies they concocted
From the tide board......

 

Not to hijack this good thread but since you asked here is a post I made back in 2004 concerning Richard Hilliard. 
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The latest victim in the never-ending Ricky Clemons college basketball scandal hasn't earned front-page headlines.

You've probably never heard of him.

But his story says more about the stain of NCAA athletics and its flawed and incestuous infractions process than all the rest of the Clemons stories put together.

His name is Richard Hilliard, and his involvement with the Clemons Case is minor. By the time his fall from grace is complete, however, the repercussions might be felt coast to coast.

Hilliard is the former director of enforcement for the NCAA. For the past several years, he's been a private attorney engaged in defending universities and coaches from the NCAA division he used to head. In fact, Hilliard is one of a handful of star attorneys who have gotten rich through the NCAA investigation process.

Like legislators who leave office to join lobbying firms, the game plan for sports lawyers is simple. They work for the NCAA for a few years and develop friendships and a working knowledge of the complicated NCAA infractions process. Then they leave the NCAA for big law firms that sell their expertise and connections to universities accused of violating NCAA rules.

Michael Glazier of Bond, Schoeneck & King in Kansas City is the undisputed king of the college sports law business. In the early 1990s, he and partner Mike Slive - now commissioner of the Southeastern Conference - started the firm that would evolutionize the way NCAA investigations are handled. As one former NCAA official said, they didn't start a cottage industry, they started a "mansion industry." Glazier and Slive, like Hilliard, worked at the NCAA's highest levels.

Now Glazier represents hundreds of university interests accused of violations. His firm pulled in more than $30,000 from the University of Missouri-Columbia during the Clemons case, and that was small potatoes. Slive, the SEC commissioner, recently announced a deal that would bring in a law firm to analyze each of its member schools' compliance departments every couple of years. Whom did he hire? Glazier.

Hilliard started out working for Glazier's firm, but when the NCAA relocated from Kansas City to Indianapolis, that city's largest firm, Ice Miller, lured him to head up its collegiate sports division. He quickly became a star, attracting big-time clients such as former University of Colorado and University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel and major universities such as Marshall,w firms that sell their expertise and connections to universities accused of violating NCAA rules.

In December 2003, a couple of months after the NCAA issued its letter of inquiry in the Clemons case, Hilliard bagged another big client: MU head basketball coach Quin Snyder.

According to records on file with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Hilliard took a $15,000 retainer fee check provided by Snyder and, rather than depositing it with his firm, used it to pay gambling debts. When his firm found out, he tried to cover his tracks, going so far as to forge fake e-mails from Snyder indicating he hadn't paid the retainer.

Hilliard doesn't deny the charge. While his Chicago attorney, James Joseph, said his client had no comment, in a filing with the disciplinary commission last week Hilliard admits the charges and asks the Illinois Supreme Court to suspend his license for no more than five months. Hilliard admits in the file that he has been receiving counseling for a gambling problem since August 2003, four months before Snyder hired him.

Losing his license, however, is the tip of the iceberg.

Just as pressing, both for the lawyer and the NCAA, is a million-dollar lawsuit brought by former Marshall compliance officer David Ridpath against Marshall, the school's football coach, various administrative officials and Hilliard. Ridpath's suit, filed in federal c St. Bonaventure and the University of Alabama.

The key to the NCAA game, Ridpath says, is hiring the properly connected lawyer - somebody like Hilliard or Glazier - finding a low level scapegoat and then lying low while the NCAA beats its chest and announces its penalties.

"A guy like Snyder goes to Hilliard because he's been told, 'This guy will help you,' " Ridpath says. "But they don't really do anything to defend you. They simply manipulate the process."

They find scapegoats such as MU assistant coaches Lane Odom and Tony Harvey, bit players who are willing to take the fall for stars like Snyder as long as they get their buyout and are allowed back into the game.

Sometimes the scapegoat game even unearths a gem like Ryan Wolf, the Barton County Community College coach whoin a law firm to analyze each of its member schools' compliance departments every couple of years. Whom did he hire? Glazier.

Hilliard started out working for Glazier's firm, but when the NCAA relocated from Kansas City to Indianapolis, that city's largest firm, Ice Miller, lured him to head up its collegiate sports division. He quickly became a star, attracting big-time clients such as former University of Colorado and University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel and major universities such as Marshall,w firms that sell their expertise and connections to universities accused of violating NCAA rules.

In December 2003, a couple of months after the NCAA issued its letter of inquiry in the Clemons case, Hilliard bagged another big client: MU head basketball coach Quin Snyder.

According to records on file with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Hilliard took a $15,000 retainer fee check provided by Snyder and, rather than depositing it with his firm, used it to pay gambling debts. When his firm found out, he tried to cover his tracks, going so far as to forge fake e-mails from Snyder indicating he hadn't paid the retainer.

Hilliard doesn't deny the charge. While his Chicago attorney, James Joseph, said his client had no comment, in a filing with the disciplinary commission last week Hilliard admits the charges and asks the Illinois Supreme Court to suspend his license for no more than five months. Hilliard admits in the file that he has been receiving counseling for a gambling problem since August 2003, four months before Snyder hired him.

Losing his license, however, is the tip of the iceberg.

Just as pressing, both for the lawyer and the NCAA, is a million-dollar lawsuit brought by former Marshall compliance officer David Ridpath against Marshall, the school's football coach, various administrative officials and Hilliard. Ridpath's suit, filed in federal c St. Bonaventure and the University of Alabama.

The key to the NCAA game, Ridpath says, is hiring the properly connected lawyer - somebody like Hilliard or Glazier - finding a low level scapegoat and then lying low while the NCAA beats its chest and announces its penalties.

"A guy like Snyder goes to Hilliard because he's been told, 'This guy will help you,' " Ridpath says. "But they don't really do anything to defend you. They simply manipulate the process."

They find scapegoats such as MU assistant coaches Lane Odom and Tony Harvey, bit players who are willing to take the fall for stars like Snyder as long as they get their buyout and are allowed back into the game.

Sometimes the scapegoat game even unearths a gem like Ryan Wolf, the Barton County Community College coach who made it possible for Clemons and others to qualify to play basketball at MU and other Division I universities.

Wolf faces federal charges, and yet the people who put Clemons and Wolf together are allowed to hire men like Hilliard and claim they didn't know anything.

"In this case, Quin Snyder saying he didn't know is absolute garbage," Ridpath charges. "That just shows how silly the infractions process is. They'll sanction a Neuheisel or a Jerry Tarkanian if they have to, but if they can%ourt in West Virginia, should be standard reading for anybody wondering about the sham of NCAA investigations.

Hilliard made life easier for Marshall and its coaches and administrators by making Ridpath the scapegoat. The compliance director was given a new title and more money and was told it was a promotion, and yet Hilliard told the NCAA that Ridpath's new job was part of a "corrective measure" by the university.

In the case of Alabama's 2001 NCAA investigation, two assistant football coaches took the blame. They're suing the NCAA for $60 million. Hilliard was dropped from the suit when he agreed to testify.

And it's not just assistant coaches who are rebelling. A week ago, former Mississippi State University coach Jackie Sherrill sued the NCAA over the investigation into his program. Named in the suit was MU graduate Mark Jones, who at the time was made it possible for Clemons and others to qualify to play basketball at MU and other Division I universities.

Wolf faces federal charges, and yet the people who put Clemons and Wolf together are allowed to hire men like Hilliard and claim they didn't know anything.

Jones, a former football player, was also once the director of enforcement for the NCAA, just like Hilliard.

Today, he works for Hilliard's old firm, Ice Miller, defending the people he used to prosecute.

Round and round it goes in the NCAA infractions game, with more family connections than the mob.

If Hilliard plays by the rules, he'll keep his mouth shut and lose his law license for a few months. Otherwise, the NCAA will dump him on the scapegoat trash heap.

[Sheltiedave]

i Love that Hilliard was disbarred for taking 15k from Snyder and making it disappear.

It is illuminating that Hilliard was present for the point shaving scandal at BC, helped Pearl set up Illinois and Thomas while he was at the NCAA, set up an innocent man in Ridpath while he was at Ice Miller, and outright stole $15k from Snyderto support his gambling debts, getting disbarred for that action.