and Nicole Vulcan
Once again, University President Mark Yudof is being asked to force witnesses in the basketball investigation to testify under oath, a measure that could invoke perjury for anyone who lies to investigators.
Jim Lord, Jan Gangelhoff’s attorney, sent Yudof a second letter to reiterate that the University has the power to place witnesses under oath. Lord originally sent a letter to Yudof with a supporting legal opinion from Peter Thompson of the Hamline University Law School March 31, but has received no response.
On Thursday, Yudof’s office deferred any comment to Tonya Moten Brown, Yudof’s chief of staff. Brown was not available for comment.
“I urge you to respond to my letter of March 31, 1999, and require all witnesses to give their testimony under oath in order to protect the integrity of the investigation,” Lord wrote.
Last weekend, Gangelhoff sat through more than 18 hours of questions from the University’s investigators in Lord’s office. They went through two of the five volumes of work Gangelhoff claims she wrote for men’s basketball team players from 1993 to 1998.
Lord said Gangelhoff took an oath for the testimony and a court reporter was on hand to record the proceedings. This was to ensure that when the investigators conclude the inquiries, they can say there was no misconduct.
Lord said he was concerned at points when the investigators glazed over some of the papers.
“So I finally interrupted them and asked, ‘Don’t you want to know more about this and who told her to write it?'” Lord said.
Elayne Donahue, former director of the Academic Counseling-Intercollegiate Athletics office, also retained Lord as her attorney. She released a report Tuesday detailing her problems with coach Clem Haskins and the office as a whole.
Donahue’s report revealed special treatment given to former player Courtney James in 1997 when his grade point average didn’t make the 2.0 minimum requirement.
Donahue reported that a special meeting was set up between members of the Assembly Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics to discuss James’ situation, but only a select few members were invited to attend. Donahue, a member of the committee, was not one of them.
As a result of that meeting, James received eligibility to play, a privilege granted to only a handful of players in James’ situation.
Donahue will conduct any interviews with investigators under oath as well. Michael Glazier, the lead attorney in the case, contacted her about setting up a date to talk. Interviews will continue with Gangelhoff this weekend to go through the remaining three volumes of course papers.