The attorney representing Jan Gangelhoff spoke with University investigators Thursday, in part to discuss whether she will allow officials to examine the hard drive of her personal computer.
Gangelhoff’s hard drive contains the vast majority of course work she allegedly completed for several members of the men’s basketball team in violation of NCAA rules.
Jim Lord, Ganglehoff’s attorney, said he first talked Wednesday with Donald Lewis, a Minneapolis attorney heading up the local investigation team, about forfeiting the hard drive to University officials.
As of Thursday, Lord and Gangelhoff had not released the computer to investigators.
Lord said the University has hired Ontrack Data Recovery Inc., a computer firm based in Eden Prairie, Minn., to help with the investigation.
Employees from Ontrack declined to comment and said University officials have asked them to refrain from discussing their role in the investigation. The company employs computer forensic experts who can pinpoint the date computer files were created or deleted.
In addition to the academic papers, Lord said Gangelhoff’s hard drive also contains several personal files and correspondences.
“The request for the hard drive in a way is kind of peculiar,” Lord said. “We want to accommodate her privacy.”
Lord said investigators want to find out if Gangelhoff wrote all the papers at once rather than over a longer period, as she claims.
Gangelhoff announced Monday that she will give investigators copies of the academic papers.
But before University officials procure copies of the papers, Lord said duplicates of the disks will be made on a CD-ROM and zip drive. He said he will work with University computer employees today to begin making copies.
Besides examining Gangelhoff’s computer, Lord said investigators also plan to look at the computers of other University officials. He said he did not know the names of the other officials whose computers may be probed.
If the data saved on the former tutor’s computer is relevant, other employees’ hard drives could be important as well, he said.
Lord said he expects Gangelhoff to sit down with University officials sometime next week to go over the copies of the academic papers. He said some of the papers have comments and grades from professors written on them.
Tonya Moten Brown, University President Mark Yudof’s chief of staff and coordinator of the investigation, was not available for comment Thursday.
Additionally, investigators spoke with Brian Berube, another former academic counselor on Thursday. Berube worked as an academic counselor for the men’s basketball team on and off before Alonzo Newby was hired as an assistant academic adviser in 1992.
Berube did not return phone calls Thursday.
Newby is one of the prominent figures in the investigation and has been described by Gangelhoff as the go-between for head coach Clem Haskins and the academic counseling unit.
University investigators have not contacted him or set up an interview, said Newby’s attorney Ron Rosenbaum.