Cottrell judge writing book

[quietfan 233]

Coming soon for your reading pleasure? Save some space on your shelf...

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/in...&thispage=1

Retired Tuscaloosa judge shopping book about Cottrell vs. NCAA

Friday, May 23, 2008

MIKE PERRINNews staff writer

Retired Tuscaloosa County judge Steve Wilson wants a chance to shape his legacy after more than two decades on the bench. To help do that, the man who presided over - and overturned - the largest civil lawsuit judgment in Alabama history has written a book.

"A Lynch Mob Mentality: Ronnie Cottrell vs. NCAA, The Untold Story," is the proposed title of Wilson's book that does not yet have a publisher, although it is in the hands of The University of Alabama Press in Tuscaloosa.

Wilson was the judge who presided over the 2005 trial in which Cottrell, a former University of Alabama assistant football coach, sued the NCAA and former freelance recruiting analyst Tom Culpepper for defamation. Wilson dismissed the claims against the NCAA and tossed out the Tuscaloosa jury's $30 million verdict returned against Culpepper.

Wilson says in a prospectus sent to the publisher that he presents circumstantial evidence that points to a conspiracy in the legal wrangling, but not one involving University of Tennessee head football coach Phil Fulmer against Alabama's football team, as presented by Cottrell lead attorney Thomas Gallion.

Wilson says that disassociated Alabama booster Logan Young, the plaintiffs and The Tuscaloosa News "may have been the real conspirators" in an effort to take advantage of public hatred toward the NCAA over its sanctions against the Tide program.

Wilson said the late Young wanted Cottrell's lawsuit to cast doubt on the Memphis booster's guilt in the illegal recruitment of Albert Means, which prompted the NCAA's investigation of UA.

"He wanted a lawsuit filed for his own selfish interests," Wilson said. "If you look throughout the complaint and the whole case, Gallion kept talking about Logan Young and how he was an innocent victim.

"That's what Logan Young wanted to be presented to the public. He had criminal charges against him (in Memphis) and some Alabama fans irate with him."

Wilson said he had debated whether to write a book about the case.

"I was sort of reluctant to write it," Wilson said. "I was talking to another retired judge ... and told him I was thinking of writing a book.

He said, `I've known you for 25 years and you've done a lot of good things in your career, but what you'll be remembered for is that Cottrell case. If you want some influence on how you'll be remembered, you need to write a book.'"

Wilson said that convinced him, and that "I'm writing it not so much over how I want to be remembered, but how not to be remembered.

"I don't want to be remembered as the judge who `fixed' the case, as Tommy Gallion would have people remember me, and not as the incompetent judge who flip-flopped, as The Tuscaloosa News tried to portray me, and, most of all, not as the judge who slept through (radio talk show host) Paul Finebaum's testimony."

Wilson and Gallion traded complaints to the Alabama State Bar's Judicial Inquiry Commission over each man's conduct during the trial. Wilson said the JIC cleared him of any wrongdoing in August 2006, but Gallion said the committee merely decided it would not rule while the trial was still going on.

While the NCAA is no longer a defendant in the lawsuit, Culpepper remains as a defendant after the Alabama Supreme Court sent the case back to the Tuscaloosa County circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear arguments from the Cottrell side.

Culpepper's attorney, John Scott, recently filed a motion for a change of venue, seeking to shift the proceedings to Lee County, the home of Auburn University.

Gallion said he had heard reports that Wilson was writing a book.

"This is laughable," he said. "I look forward to reading it. We may have to litigate against him unless he's absolutely right in every aspect.

"If anybody is stupid enough to publish a book about this in the middle of the trial, he (Wilson) better be accurate in every single aspect or I'm sure our clients have no problem suing him."

Wilson said his book focuses on the Cottrell claims against the NCAA, which would not be a part of any new trial. "I really don't talk too much about the Culpepper claim," he said. "I mostly focus on the claims against the NCAA and other individuals. I certainly don't want to do anything interfering with Ronnie Cottrell's pursuit of his claim against Tom Culpepper or of Tom Culpepper's defending against that claim."

[WinCrimson 61]

I think Wilson should donate every penny of the proceeds to charity.

You know, to not give in to his own "selfish interests" and such...

[The Prowler 1]

And the gnashing of the teeth has already begun.....Heard on the bammer Network today, bammer homer (PF) already making fun of nearly Everything the Judge has done. Saying something similar to "This is a complete Joke, he's a joke". He also interviewed a bammer web writer a little later, but thank God that I was already home when the guy started talking bad about the Judge. I heard that he mentions, in the book, something about Robert Whitt giving Mike Slive a payoff to have the NCAA back off, or something like that.

[AUloggerhead 2,231]

This is even better than I ever expected. The case that won't die. No matter how hard the turds try to shout down what this judge is eventually going to say in his book, the underlying reason for the sanctions will forever remain front & center in the public eye: uat = cheatin' tradishun. "Lynch mob mentality" -- perfect description.

[quietfan 233]

And still there are those hard-core denial experts (I'm not saying all Bama fans, because many are reasonable. including some on AUN) who believe they are totally innocent...after losing initally and on appeal with the NCAA, losing in a federal court in Memphis, and even having a judge from Tuscaloosa County declare "BS!!". That' 0-3 in three separate types of "trails" in three separate "jurisdictions"...but "they're innocent-it didn't happen!".

[AUesquire 1]

Anyone think this Judge might mysteriously be killed falling up the stairs?

[WarTim 3,456]

Esquire has "cut to the chase" in record time!

[Tigermike 3,029]

Do you think there may be a book burning in Tuscaloosa?

[The Prowler 1]

Anyone think this Judge might mysteriously be killed falling up the stairs?

You mean...

Mah, we'll just put him on a Medical Hardship. Anywho.......

[AUesquire 1]

THAT'S gonna' leave a mark.

[DKW 86 7,425]

Anyone think this Judge might mysteriously be killed falling up the stairs?

I just hope the man already has the book written. He could fall up the stairs at almost any time now.

Hope he has molotov cocktail insurance too.