Attorney spars with law professor witness in NCAA defamation case

LOS ANGELES -- Officials tasked with overseeing the NCAA committee that sanctioned University of Southern California over the Reggie Bush benefits scandal clearly thought assistant coach Todd McNair should also have been implicated in the matter.

But whether those opinions lulled voting committee members into finding that McNair knew about payments Bush received from aspiring agent Lloyd Lake was largely the focus of a sparring match between McNair's attorney and an NCAA witness in court Thursday.

McNair is suing the NCAA over defamation claims, arguing the body that made the finding, the Committee of Infractions, botched its investigation. McNair said he has suffered from unemployment and depression since losing his job as assistant coach. McNair v. the National Collegiate Athletic Association, BC462891 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed June 3, 2011).

While directly examining Rodney Uphoff, who was the coordinator of appeals for the committee, McNair attorney Bruce Broillet sought to show the jury how Uphoff and infractions director Shepard Cooper tried to sway a vote against McNair.

"You were trying to influence the committee, weren't you?" Broillet asked.

"To reach the right decision based on the evidence in the record," said Uphoff, a nonvoting member of the committee.

Was Uphoff worried that the committee was not going to come down hard enough on the university? Broillet thought so.

Uphoff said he didn't remember having an opinion on the matter regarding the date in question, Feb. 18, 2010, when the committee began deliberating.

"Well, that's the night you started losing sleep on this," said Broillet, a partner at Greene, Broillet & Wheeler LLP.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I hadn't formed any judgment on the committee on the 18th. I had no idea where the committee was going on the 18th," said Uphoff, a lawyer and professor at the University of Missouri School of Law.

Broillet then pulled up an email from Uphoff to Cooper sent four days after the committee finished hearing evidence.

"I haven't been able to sleep three nights because I fear the committee is going to be too lenient on USC on the football violations," Uphoff wrote in the email.

Broillet brought up Roscoe Howard, another nonvoting member on the committee, who felt assistant coach McNair knew about payments between Bush and Lake. Broillet argued Howard violated NCAA bylaws by insinuating himself into deliberations when he was an incoming member and was not allowed to vote or be part of deliberations.

Also entered into evidence was Cooper writing that he was "impressed" with Howard, whom he called "a bulldog."

"Does that mean Roscoe Howard was a bulldog because he was heavily involved in those deliberations?" Broillet asked.

"No, I don't believe he was heavily involved. During the deliberations he clearly made some statements, but he was not heavily involved," said Uphoff.

Broillet analogized Howard's influence on the committee to that of a non-jury member giving their opinion to a jury deliberating a trial verdict.

In another email to Uphoff, Cooper wrote that McNair was "morally bankrupt," but Uphoff contended he didn't share those views of McNair.

Broillet also asked why a dog-fighting misdemeanor on McNair's record was brought up by Howard without McNair's knowledge. The information was considered by the committee outside the record but did not ultimately figure into its ruling, according to Broillet.

Uphoff said there was discussion about whether McNair initially lied about his criminal record.

"I don't think he lied," said Uphoff.

A defense attorney objected, citing a lack of veracity, but it was overruled by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller.

"He is a law professor," the judge said, eliciting laughs from the gallery.