WTVD’s Mark Armstrong is providing some timely updates on the UNC athletic improprieties and academic fraud cases.
This is a link to his twitter account that has updated with the following today:
Ruling on release of Butch Davis ‘216’ phone records will occur July 19th
Redacted ‘Statement of Fact’ forms, reinstatement requests sent to NCAA and bills from bond firm could be released today.
The ‘Statement of fact’ forms are basically UNC’s description to the NCAA of the scenarios they believe constituted violations.
Whether athlete cell phone/bank records etc can be released as well as video recordings of any interviews with athletes, coaches…compliance etc will also be decided July 19th
If you need to review some of the background regarding Butch Davis and UNC’s attempt to circumvent the freedom of information act with the use of a ‘rogue’ cell phone telephone then you can click on our 216 tag.
One of the more astounding developments of the UNC case and resulting cover-up is that UNC knew of the existence of the ‘216 phone’ and intentionally chose to not to have anyone from the University review the records. Instead, the University intentionally hired outside legal counsel to protect themselves from further information requests and to absolve anyone on campus from knowing what was in the records.
Don’t you just LOVE IT when everyone over there keeps telling you how important it is for them to get to the bottom of all of this scandal? Yet, they actually choose NOT to explore key pieces of the scandal so that they can’t get to the bottom of it?
“He didn’t give us the records,†said Nancy Davis. “We hired outside legal counsel to take a look at them, but he retained the records, and he has them now.â€
It is clear that UNC-CHeat was positioning & hedging themselves from the beginning.
Hear no evil.
See no evil.
Of course, it is very hard to not hear anything and not see anything when you make yourself deaf and blind.
Said another way:
Part of me thinks that UNC hired outside counsel (would love to know whom, by the way…anyone have info on that?) to review the records to protect the attorney-client privilege. The upshot is that a court cannot force either UNC or its counsel to release their communications back and forth regarding the records. It’s a convenient way for UNC’s administration to plausibly claim they lack knowledge, because their only “knowledge” comes from a privileged source. Frankly, if I were UNC’s general counsel, I think it’s what I would do.
Note that the records themselves aren’t privileged. It’s only the communications between UNC and its counsel about them that are.
Many questions remain regarding what communication patterns would be revealed by the 216 phone records. How close were Davis and ‘rogue’ coach John Blake? How often did Davis communicate with ‘rogue’ tutor Jennifer Wiley? or ‘rogue’ compliance folks who weren’t doing their job? or ‘rogue’ department heads or ‘rogue’ professors of academic departments? or ‘rogue’ sports agents? or ‘rogue’ high school recruits and coaches during dead periods? or any other ‘rogue’ tutors? or what ‘rogue’ players were reaching out for guidance and advice? or what ‘rogue’ alums might have really had the ear of Davis? Were there any ‘rogue’ UNC Board of Trustees or UNC Board of Governors that were communicating with Davis?
You get the picture.
