Judge denies electronic form of NCAA’s request in college basketball corruption court case to ‘obtain materials’

By Dylan Lysen     Feb 28, 2019

FILE - In this March 14, 2012, file photo, a player runs across the NCAA logo during practice in Pittsburgh before an NCAA tournament college basketball game. What some call the sleezy side of college basketball recruiting will be on display at a criminal trial starting Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

Updated 2 p.m. Friday, March 1:This story has been revised to reflect that the substantive motion by the NCAA was not denied but only the form in which it was made.

The federal judge presiding over a college basketball corruption case has not yet decided on an NCAA request for unreleased information related to the case.

Judge Lewis Kaplan’s denial Thursday pertained only to the NCAA’s request to file the motion electronically, said Emily James, a spokeswoman for the NCAA. A representative for Kaplan did not immediately respond Friday to a request for confirmation.


A federal judge on Thursday denied the NCAA’s electronic request to obtain unreleased information gathered by the FBI for a college basketball corruption court case, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied the NCAA’s electronically filed motion to request to become an “intervenor” in the court case of former Adidas executive James Gatto, business manager Christian Dawkins and amateur league director Merl Code, who were all found guilty of fraud in October for their scheme to pay highly touted basketball recruits to attend certain universities, including the University of Kansas.

The NCAA wrote in a Thursday letter to the court that it requested to be an intervenor for the purpose of “obtaining materials.” In the same day, Kaplan denied the electronic form of the request “without prejudice,” which allows the NCAA to make the request again.

“Any such motion shall address the question whether intervention in a criminal case is permissible,” Kaplan wrote in the denial.

The decision comes just days after legal officials for the NCAA told Yahoo Sports that the organization was trying to obtain unreleased information the FBI gathered for the case. The NCAA wants to use the unreleased information for its own investigation into whether programs caught in the scandal committed NCAA violations.

The NCAA officials said they are also reaching out to defense attorneys working in the case to see if they may be able to provide the information.

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53168Judge denies electronic form of NCAA’s request in college basketball corruption court case to ‘obtain materials’