Posts from the Ncaa Basketball Police Blotter Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Two former Duquesne basketball players who were shot on campus in 2006 filed a federal lawsuit against the school today.

The players, Shawn James and Kojo Mensah, say the school was negligent in failing to provide adequate security at the dance where they shot, and in allowing non-students to attend. They also claim that coach Ron Everhart forced them to play before they had completely recovered from their injuries.

Three other Duquesne players were also shot, and one of them, Stuard Baldonado, also sued the school. The shooters, William Holmes III and Derek Lee, both pleaded guilty to five counts of attempted homicide and aggravated assault. Former Duquesne student Brittany Jones, who invited Holmes and Lee to the dance and checked with the doorman beforehand to make sure her guests wouldn't be frisked, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment.

Specifically the court system. Here's a free tip. If you receive an envelope stamped by the clerk of courts naming you in a lawsuit, it's a good idea to get a lawyer and respond. Regardless of whether it is criminal or civil.

Kansas point guard Sherron Collins now has a $75,000 default judgment entered against him from a civil suit.

Jessica Brown, 35, accused Collins of exposing himself and rubbing against her on May 18, 2007, in an elevator at Jayhawker Towers, where she worked.

Collins had 20 days to respond to the lawsuit, filed May 14, 2008, but he did not.

The criminal investigation is still an open one. Apparently the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is still waiting for test results from potential evidence. There is something of a backlog. There was an initial test last June, but the results were incomplete.

Collins has maintained his innocence, so without any witnesses or any evidence it is unlikely charges could be successfully brought against Collins.

Even without any criminal charges, Ms. Brown has the right and did file a civil suit for "humiliation, mental anguish and severe emotional pain." Collins claimed he didn't understand the legal responsibility for responding and the outcome of ignoring it.

It's very likely that Collins will be able to get the default judgment vacated and reset for trial. Still, the whole issue (and potential stain on the old credit report) could have been avoided.

There's nothing about this story to like. The America Least Blog has been covering the tale of now former Binghamton University Bearcat player Minja Kovacevic reportedly beating a fellow student to near death. Kovacevic had bail posted. Despite reportedly surrendering his passport, the Serbian native apparently got back to Serbia. Now it turns out that the Serbian Consulate in New York had posted his bail.

Don't bother looking for answers about that yet, the Consulate has none.

Serbian Consul General Slobodan Nenadovic said Monday his office is aware of the incident. But the consulate official who handled Kovacevic's bail is out of the New York City office for two weeks. Nenadovic said Monday he was unable to comment until he knows more about the case.

"I don't know what else I can tell you," Nenadovic said.

That's convenient.

So how did a 6-9 man with no passport manage to leave the country? Homeland Security and Immigration have no idea.

"This is not a case that Immigration and Custom Enforcement was involved in at any point," said Michael W. Gilhooley, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of Homeland Security.

Yet, they can confirm he left the country. No, nothing about this stinks. Nothing at all.

Believe it or not, the US and Serbia have an extradition treaty and if Kovacevic is "found" in Serbia he can be returned to Broome County, NY. I'm not holding my breath anyone is going to find him. Not with everything that has happened.

Binghamton has announced that Kovacevic's scholarship hasn't been renewed for the 2008-09 school year. Bryan Steinhauer, the student that was beaten remains in the hospital in an unconscious and unresponsive since the beating in the beginning of May.

With all the giddiness over the Tar Heels getting back Ty Lawson next season, there are some serious questions that need to be answered.

What kind of penalties will Lawson face for his arrest last week?

Granted, in the realm of wrong-doin' ... this isn't that bad. A 20 year old had a beer and his radio too loud. Yes, he was caught in his car, but he wasn't drunk and if he had been of drinking age he wouldn't have caught a DUI. Still, these are those dumb things that need to get some punishment in some form.

Whether he went to the NBA or not, he would have to face a Chapel Hill courtroom at some point. However, now that he stays a Tar Heel, the team (namely, coach Roy Williams) will have to issue some sort of punishment.

To understand this dynamic is key ... and one of the reason most people felt Lawson was NBA-bound. Lawson, who will be a junior next season, has been in Ol' Roy's doghouse before. Of course, then it was due to basketball-related issues. Now it is a bit more serious.

Don't think that one conversation that Lawson had with Williams over the past few days didn't include "what will you do to me if I come back, coach?" Rest assured that it has been discussed and, probably, somewhat satisfactory for Lawson.

That must have been a fun meeting with so many different agendas.

Investigators from the NCAA and Pacific 10 Conference and officials from USC have met with Louis Johnson to discuss his allegations that a sports agency funneled money to basketball star O.J. Mayo through an intermediary before and during his one season at USC.

In a seven-hour meeting Monday at the Los Angeles office of one of Johnson's attorneys, NCAA investigators led the questioning of Johnson and reviewed receipts that the former Mayo confidant had provided to ESPN for an "Outside the Lines" report that aired last month, Johnson attorney David M. Murphy said.

The one common thread between the three interests meeting with Johnson and his attorneys would be what USC knew or should have known about O.J. Mayo receiving money and/or goods from Rodney Guillory -- the now ex-lead member of the Mayo Entourage who provided Mayo with his benefits.

I'm guessing that after a 7-hour meeting that included examination of the physical evidence, the USC representatives offered to pick up the lunch/dinner tab for the NCAA and Pac-10 investigators.

North Carolina point guard (and NBA draft hopeful) Ty Lawson was arrested for driving after consuming alcohol in Chapel Hill. He was also charged with violating a local noise ordinance and driving on a revoked license.

A Chapel Hill police officer arrested Lawson, 20, at 2:33 a.m. on North Columbia St., in the heart of town. The officer stopped Lawson in a 2005 four-door Chevrolet with Maryland plates after hearing loud music coming from the car, said police Capt. Chris Blue.

The officer suspected that Lawson had been drinking, conducted a field sobriety test and found probable cause to charge him, Blue said.

Understand that this isn't a true DUI because it isn't stated that Lawson was drunk. However, he is under the legal drinking age and the law falls under the same statute. Lawson will appear in court on July 8th.

This is really bad timing for Lawson. He is currently "testing the draft waters" by working out for NBA teams. He played pretty well in his only game during the NBA's Pre-Draft camp ... but sat the next two days with a hip pointer. Lawson did state that he'd stay in the draft if he was a top twenty pick, which seems to be higher than experts have him projected -- and that was before this incident.

This arrested really puts the pressure on Lawson as it may hurt his draft status a bit. Now, it isn't the end of the world that a 20-year old drank some alcohol (again, the report didn't say he was drunk) and was playing his stereo loud. However, NBA teams really want their point guards to be good decision makers ... and Lawson sure didn't show that.

If you didn't think the IRS was going to want to look into the O.J. Mayo matter, then you don't know how they feel about fake charities. Using charities as a front is a big concern for the IRS because it is an area ripe for tax fraud and hiding/moving money.

Special agents for the FBI and IRS and members of U.S. Attorney's office have launched a joint investigation into "possible income tax evasion and fraud arising from the misuse of charitable organization funds," according to an attorney retained by Louis Johnson, a member of former USC guard O.J. Mayo's inner circle until three months ago.

Anthony Salerno, Johnson's Los Angeles-based attorney, said the scope of the various agencies' investigation is still unclear.

That's on top of the California Attorney General's office also looking into the issue. Both agencies are not commenting at this time.

As far as O.J. Mayo is concerned, he really has nothing to fear. He may have benefited from receiving money and goods via Guillory who got the money through the "charity," but he wasn't the one who actually misused the funds.

To many people, former Kentucky guard Patrick Sparks will forever be remembered by hitting the three point shot shown on the video above. Trailing Michigan State by three in the Elite Eight of the 2005 NCAA Tournament, Sparks hit a three point shot that was reviewed as much as any shot has ever been.

After reviewing the shot, it was determined to be behind the arc (after CBS kept zooming in on it) and the game went into overtime (Kentucky would go on the lose). Not only was Sparks a hero for hitting that shot, but for taunting Billy Packer directly after.

Well, Sparks got his name in the paper again as he was nabbed for drunk driving:

Sparks, 25, was arrested by Bowling Green police around 2:30 a.m. CDT after being pulled over for making an improper turn near the Western Kentucky University campus. Sparks' eyes were bloodshot and his speech was slurred, according to the citation.

Sparks was administered a Breathalyzer test, which determined his blood alcohol level as .141, nearly double the state legal limit of .08. He was taken to the Warren County Regional Jail before being released.

Sparks attended WKU for two years before transferring to Kentucky. He's also been out of basketball and living in the small Kentucky town of Central City.

I'm trying to figure out what USC's defense is at this point if this is really the Trojans' argument to the NCAA regarding Rodney Guillory.

USC intends to tell the NCAA it knew of no wrongdoing involving O.J. Mayo and banned his mentor, Rodney Guillory, from receiving tickets as an illustration of its attempt to prevent the basketball star from receiving any improper benefits, according to sources.

So... they knew of nothing that out of the ordinary. Yet, they banned O.J. Mayo's "mentor" from getting tickets to show how there was nothing strange going on with Mayo and Guillory.

Apparently the ban was just for tickets to the games themselves.

But there remain some questions to this defense. Guillory was frequently seen in the basketball offices and also around the locker room, and regularly attended pickup games at the Galen Center when Mayo played last summer.

To say nothing of the fact that it was Guillory who showed up at Tim Floyd's office at the Galen Center with the news that O.J. Mayo was willing to come to USC.

All this seems to indicate is that USC was well aware of Guillory's history and was bad news. A big potential risk for the school. Yet, their approach was to try and eliminate any obvious appearances of anything going on. That, and to make sure if anything did happen, it happened away from the court so they could have plausible deniability.

Akron basketball player Rydell Brooks was arrested after he was shooting at police officers this weekend.

Akron basketball player Rydell Brooks was arrested early Sunday after shooting at police officers during a foot chase following a traffic stop.

Akron police said the 20-year-old Brooks ran from a car and fired several times as police officers chased him. He was being held in Summit County Jail and faces attempted murder and felonious assault charges.

The officers were not hit and he was in custody after the foot chase. Brooks was born and raised in Akron, OH. He attended Niagara University before transferring to the Zips last June.