I've underlined a few interesting tidbits/observations:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Katina Powell is going to the NCAA, her attorney Larry Wilder told WDRB’s Stephan Johnson on Thursday.
If you wondered what would be the upshot of the news earlier this week that several women were coming forward to sue for defamation, claiming they danced with Powell at University of Louisville parties but never had sex with anyone, this is it.
Powell, according to Wilder, now feels she has nothing to lose, and will speak with the NCAA soon. Whether she has nothing to lose is debatable, but there’s no debating that at the very least, her journals and text messages appear headed to a Jefferson County grand jury, and perhaps into the public domain eventually.
We’d been hearing a lot from people who oppose Powell this week, and from her youngest daughter on Facebook, who published some things not in line with what her mother’s book said.
But Wilder sat down with WDRB’s Johnson for 40 minutes on Thursday, offering a look at recent events from Katina Powell's perspective, and providing answers to questions that were sometimes quite pointed. More on those below.
The most notable news Wilder offered regarded his client's journals and text messages. He said the messages were retrieved from Powell’s phone by an Indianapolis company that does such things, they were verified and categorized onto an index which the company has used since, in compiling the book. That, we had already heard. It’s the material that was showed to ESPN. Wilder insists the journals comprise a legitimate record of Powell’s activities. What we hadn't heard was the sheer volume of material that would be turned over.
“It’s not like she has one journal that’s this date and supposedly is over four years and here’s your journal,” Wilder told Johnson. “It’s a stack of journals and they have mundane and rum-dum entries, like, ‘Something happened today with one of the grandchildren and here’s what I did, this is what we did and we went and got ice cream.' And the reason I say that, the reason I think that’s important is, it is clear that those were contemporaneously created documents based on the facts of what were going on at the time. Her cell phone, 1,400 text messages between her and Andre McGee. Her cell phone, several hundred text messages between her and Terrance Williams. Her cell phone, you can’t create this kind of evidence to create a hoax.”
Wilder had some good lines regarding Williams, who told TMZ that he didn’t need to pay for sex, because he was like Elvis in Louisville. Wilder noted that the text message trail says otherwise.
“Elvis paid,” Wilder said.
But that’s not an altogether important fact in U of L’s ongoing investigation with the NCAA. Williams was no longer a player at the school after 2009, and what he did two years later shouldn’t impact what happened with the program — unless the text messages reveal some other kind of involvement.
Of more pertinence is what Wilder had to say when asked whether he thought U of L coach Rick Pitino knew anything about the alleged actions. He said he didn’t doubt former director of basketball operations Andre McGee told Powell that, “Rick knows everything.” But Wilder said he sees nothing in the evidence Powell has that would link Pitino directly to anything that happened.
“As a lawyer, I can tell you as we sit here right now today, I have no knowledge of any demonstrative evidence, any admissible evidence, any circumstantial evidence, that would cause me as a lawyer to believe that there is any ability to demonstrate that coach Rick Pitino had knowledge of what was gong on,” Wilder said. “I can say that without hesitation, having had benefit of all the information I have."
Wilder said Powell hasn’t taken a polygraph test. He noted that the players who have come forward to corroborate portions of her account are all the polygraph she needs, along with the journals and text messages she has. (Two sources have told WDRB that U of L coach Rick Pitino voluntarily offered to take a polygraph test, and passed. Polygraphs are not admissible as evidence in court. Pitino is declining any comment on the investigation on the advice of counsel.)
Wilder said he thinks a large segment of the Louisville fan base remains in denial, despite some corroboration from media outlets like ESPN and even the women who came forward this week acknowledging at least part of Powell’s story — even as they denied a key part.
“Fans are not accepting some of the things of baseline importance of what happened,” Wilder said. “The fans aren’t ready to grasp and understand that, ‘Now what we thought was nothing had happened, now it’s pretty clear that the least we can see is these things were happening inside the basketball dorm involving our recruits and these players, and what do we do about it?' Instead, it’s still kind of, ‘None of this happened, it’s all a lie, she’s telling lies and the book’s a lie. We’re going to put on our blinders and become myopic about what happened and just go forward and be OK with it.'"
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Katina Powell is going to the NCAA, her attorney Larry Wilder told WDRB’s Stephan Johnson on Thursday.
If you wondered what would be the upshot of the news earlier this week that several women were coming forward to sue for defamation, claiming they danced with Powell at University of Louisville parties but never had sex with anyone, this is it.
Powell, according to Wilder, now feels she has nothing to lose, and will speak with the NCAA soon. Whether she has nothing to lose is debatable, but there’s no debating that at the very least, her journals and text messages appear headed to a Jefferson County grand jury, and perhaps into the public domain eventually.
We’d been hearing a lot from people who oppose Powell this week, and from her youngest daughter on Facebook, who published some things not in line with what her mother’s book said.
But Wilder sat down with WDRB’s Johnson for 40 minutes on Thursday, offering a look at recent events from Katina Powell's perspective, and providing answers to questions that were sometimes quite pointed. More on those below.
The most notable news Wilder offered regarded his client's journals and text messages. He said the messages were retrieved from Powell’s phone by an Indianapolis company that does such things, they were verified and categorized onto an index which the company has used since, in compiling the book. That, we had already heard. It’s the material that was showed to ESPN. Wilder insists the journals comprise a legitimate record of Powell’s activities. What we hadn't heard was the sheer volume of material that would be turned over.
“It’s not like she has one journal that’s this date and supposedly is over four years and here’s your journal,” Wilder told Johnson. “It’s a stack of journals and they have mundane and rum-dum entries, like, ‘Something happened today with one of the grandchildren and here’s what I did, this is what we did and we went and got ice cream.' And the reason I say that, the reason I think that’s important is, it is clear that those were contemporaneously created documents based on the facts of what were going on at the time. Her cell phone, 1,400 text messages between her and Andre McGee. Her cell phone, several hundred text messages between her and Terrance Williams. Her cell phone, you can’t create this kind of evidence to create a hoax.”
Wilder had some good lines regarding Williams, who told TMZ that he didn’t need to pay for sex, because he was like Elvis in Louisville. Wilder noted that the text message trail says otherwise.
“Elvis paid,” Wilder said.
But that’s not an altogether important fact in U of L’s ongoing investigation with the NCAA. Williams was no longer a player at the school after 2009, and what he did two years later shouldn’t impact what happened with the program — unless the text messages reveal some other kind of involvement.
Of more pertinence is what Wilder had to say when asked whether he thought U of L coach Rick Pitino knew anything about the alleged actions. He said he didn’t doubt former director of basketball operations Andre McGee told Powell that, “Rick knows everything.” But Wilder said he sees nothing in the evidence Powell has that would link Pitino directly to anything that happened.
“As a lawyer, I can tell you as we sit here right now today, I have no knowledge of any demonstrative evidence, any admissible evidence, any circumstantial evidence, that would cause me as a lawyer to believe that there is any ability to demonstrate that coach Rick Pitino had knowledge of what was gong on,” Wilder said. “I can say that without hesitation, having had benefit of all the information I have."
Wilder said Powell hasn’t taken a polygraph test. He noted that the players who have come forward to corroborate portions of her account are all the polygraph she needs, along with the journals and text messages she has. (Two sources have told WDRB that U of L coach Rick Pitino voluntarily offered to take a polygraph test, and passed. Polygraphs are not admissible as evidence in court. Pitino is declining any comment on the investigation on the advice of counsel.)
Wilder said he thinks a large segment of the Louisville fan base remains in denial, despite some corroboration from media outlets like ESPN and even the women who came forward this week acknowledging at least part of Powell’s story — even as they denied a key part.
“Fans are not accepting some of the things of baseline importance of what happened,” Wilder said. “The fans aren’t ready to grasp and understand that, ‘Now what we thought was nothing had happened, now it’s pretty clear that the least we can see is these things were happening inside the basketball dorm involving our recruits and these players, and what do we do about it?' Instead, it’s still kind of, ‘None of this happened, it’s all a lie, she’s telling lies and the book’s a lie. We’re going to put on our blinders and become myopic about what happened and just go forward and be OK with it.'"
