Former University of Cincinnati point guard Charles Williams may end up spending more time in court than he did on the court for the UC men's basketball team.
Williams is set to file suit against UC for a minimum of $175,000 for defamation, negligence, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to his godmother, Tonya Ivory.
Ivory said that may not be the last of the suits. Williams and Dayton-based attorney Anne Frayne may follow that with lawsuits against the law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King, which conducted UC's in-house investigation into Williams' recruitment, and the NCAA.
The case stems from the investigation of Williams' eligibility, which began in January 1997 and resulted in him missing the final six games of his junior season and being declared ineligible for most of his senior year.
"I'm not a lawyer. I'm an athletic director. But I defend the university's actions," said UC's Bob Goin. "Ultimately, it was the NCAA that substantiated what we did. If we were wrong, they would have allowed him to play a whole season.
"I feel bad that the young man is in some discomfort, but the university is in some discomfort, also."
Williams, a Los Angeles native, was recruited from Chaffey (Calif.) Community College for the 1996-97 season to play point guard for the team that entered the year ranked No. 1 in the nation. He competed in 28 games before being declared ineligible in February of his junior season.
Concerned about an inordinate number of credit hours achieved by athletes attending Compton Community College in California, the NCAA instructed all schools that had athletes go through Compton to reassess their eligibility. Williams attended two classes in Compton between his final semester at Chaffey and his arrival at UC.
The school retained attorneys Mike Glazier and Rick Evrard to conduct the investigation. UC subsequently put on leave assistant coach John Loyer, who handled much of the recruitment of Williams. The attorneys' report was filed to the NCAA last October; it charged UC had provided Williams with improper academic assistance in becoming eligible to compete in the 1996-97 season, as well as extra benefits from a university professor he befriended that included an airline ticket to his home in Los Angeles.
The NCAA enforcement division has not yet responded to the university, but its eligibility officers declared Williams could compete only in the final six games of the 1997-98 season, plus postseason tournaments. Williams practiced sporadically with the team through the fall semester, then withdrew from school just before the start of final exams and left the team.
Williams has been living in the Cincinnati area since March, working part-time in the city and also in the family day-care business in Dayton.
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