Gallion trial delay?

[quietfan 233]

For those of you hoping to follow this during the no-football doldrums of early summer--you might need to find another hobby for June:

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/huntsvil...73156166380.xml

NCAA wants to delay trial

Cottrell-Williams suit may be pushed back two weeks

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

A Tuscaloosa judge may issue a ruling as early as today on a motion filed by the NCAA seeking to delay the trial regarding the lawsuit filed by two former Alabama assistant football coaches.

Even if Tuscaloosa County circuit judge Steve Wilson grants the continuance, it's expected to only be a slight delay.

Montgomery lawyer Tommy Gallion, the lead attorney for Ronnie Cottrell and Ivy Williams, said the plaintiffs were agreeable to a delay of about two weeks. Gallion added that the primary concern for his clients would be completion of the trial this summer to avoid interfering with football season.

Williams is an assistant coach at Savannah State while Cottrell, according to Gallion, is hopeful of landing a high school job before next season.

Wilson has scheduled the trial to begin June 13. The lawsuit was filed in December 2002.

Tuscaloosa attorney Delaine Mountain, who argued against the motion for Cottrell and Williams, said the judge indicated he might rule today.

The crux of the NCAA's motion seeking the continuance was that Gallion did not meet proper deadlines in submitting an expert witness to the defendants as part of the discovery process. But the NCAA has also failed to deliver documents sought by Gallion, according to Mountain.

The lawsuit was filed in wake of the NCAA's infractions case against Alabama. Both Cottrell and Williams were assistant coaches at the time when the NCAA found the football program guilty of violations that led to a five-year probation.

Cottrell and Williams claim their coaching careers were ruined by the investigation even though they were both cleared of committing any major violations.

[AUesquire 1]

I'm sort of torn over this whole issue because on one hand, I want the NCAA to be exposed and brought to their knees. On the other, I just don't want to see Cotrell and Williams as the one's to do it. The NCAA is as much a rogue entity as any rogue booster out there. They do what they want, when they want and are totally inconsistent in their procedures. Cotrell and Williams were incredibly dirty in this whole mess and no amount of spin will ever make me believe otherwise. It is sad to think they were just as dirty as the NCAA and may wind up collecting millions from them.

Hey, now that's a novel concept. Why didn't I think about it?

[AUslug 1]

Great, more sound bites from Gallion, where is the nearest trash can, .

[BamaGrad03 0]

Cottrell isnt dirty in all of this...the NCAA has even said so. After the fact. That was the whole issue to begin with.

[AUesquire 1]

They also said Williams wasn't dirty right from the start. However, a couple of hundred phone calls to Mr. Young say otherwise. Cotrell was recruiting coordinator, and he didn't know anything about Logan Young or what was going on in Memphis? Even Mal Moore knew what Young was up to but he didn't have the coconuts to go in a motel room and tell Young to stop.

In a court of law, there may not be enough evidence to prove Cotrell and Young were involved, but that's also what they were saying about Logan Young and it took the jury a couple of hours of deliberation and a lunch break to slam dunk him. But the NCAA does not go by the same standards as the courts do and the amount of circumstantial evidence against Cotrell and Williams tells me they were right in the middle of it all. Like I said, spin it any way you like but I'll never believe both Cotrell and Williams weren't involved.

[BamaGrad03 0]

I'm not spinning...im just going by what the NCAA said.

They said it was a mistake when they put cottrell and williams in with all the "cheating" accusations. And have since come out on more than one occasion to echo that it was a mistake.

Maybe that means im spinning...but i think it means im reading their press releases.

[WarTim 3,457]

The trial has been delayed to fit in with the schedule of "TN STUD".

p.s. Wasn't Ronnie the guy that carried the briefcase full of $$$ to Memphis?