Pubdate: Sat, 16 Aug 2003
Source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Contact:  http://www.lubbockonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/841

TAPES REVEAL BLISS TOLD PLAYERS TO LIE ABOUT DENNEHY

WACO (AP) -- Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss, who resigned last week, told
players to lie to investigators and say slain teammate Patrick Dennehy paid his
tuition by dealing drugs, according to conversations secretly recorded by an
assistant coach and obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"I think the thing we want to do -- and you think about this -- if there's a
way we can create the perception that Pat may have been a dealer. Even if we
had to kind of make some things look a little better than they are, that can
save us," Bliss told one player in a conversation taped by assistant coach Abar
Rouse on July 30, 31 and Aug. 1, the newspaper reported in its online edition
Friday night.

The tapes also show Bliss knew some players smoked marijuana and that Baylor
coaches lied when they denied knowledge that Harvey Thomas, the junior-college
recruit who arrived in Waco in late spring, threatened Dennehy.

Rouse, who joined the Baylor coaching staff June 1, made the tapes available to
the Star-Telegram on Friday before he met with an NCAA enforcement official and
Baylor's investigative committee, the group set up last month after allegations
of wrongdoing relating to Dennehy's tuition and other issues.

Bliss told the Star-Telegram on Friday that he has been trying to "share some
of the stories that I had heard, and I was completely wrong in what I did.

"But the bizarre circumstances painted me into a corner and I chose the wrong
way to react. As of last Friday (Aug. 8), however, those days are over and I
have cooperated completely and will continue to do so because I know I have
disappointed a lot of people," Bliss said.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Bliss by phone were unsuccessful
Friday night.

Allegations of NCAA violations surfaced after the 6-foot-10 Dennehy, 21,
disappeared in mid-June. His body was found July 25 near a rock quarry a few
miles from campus.

Dennehy died from two gunshot wounds to the head, according to an autopsy
report. He had no alcohol, opiates, amphetamines or barbiturates in his system,
but his body was too decomposed to test for marijuana, according to the autopsy
report.

Carlton Dotson, who played basketball at Baylor last year, has been charged
with Dennehy's murder and remains jailed in his home state of Maryland awaiting
extradition to Texas.

Bliss met with the investigative committee for more than two hours Friday night
at Baylor's law school.

In a statement Friday night, Baylor President Robert B. Sloan Jr. said he felt
betrayed by Bliss' attempt "to suppress and conceal the truth."

Kirk Watson, counsel for the Baylor investigating committee, said committee
members were stunned by what they heard on the tapes.

"These tapes are evidence of a desperate person trying to cover up his
activities. It is shocking. But the good news is it failed," Watson told the
Star-Telegram.

The investigation has turned up no evidence that Dennehy was involved in drug
dealing or had any access to drug money, Baylor law professor Bill Underwood,
head of the internal review committee, told The Dallas Morning News for a story
in its online edition.

Underwood told the Morning News that Bliss wrote out scripts for assistant
coaches and players to recite to try to convince investigators that Dennehy was
a drug dealer.

Bliss resigned Aug. 8, saying he had been made aware of rules violations by the
committee a day earlier. Sloan said the committee found that two players had
received improper tuition payments and that Bliss admitted involvement.

Rouse told the Star-Telegram on Friday said he began making the secret
recordings after Bliss told him that he would lose his job if he didn't help
carry out the scheme. But he said he opposed portraying Dennehy in an
inaccurate light.

Dennehy, who transferred to Baylor from the University of New Mexico last year,
was no longer on scholarship. His father Patrick Dennehy Sr. has said he knew
the Baylor coaching staff arranged to pay his son's tuition.

On the tapes, Bliss says the players could create the "perception" that Dennehy
sold drugs to pay his tuition. He suggested that players tell investigators
they saw Dennehy with a "tray" containing a variety of drugs and with a "roll"
of $100 bills.

In the taped conversations, the two players acknowledged smoking marijuana with
Dennehy, but neither said they saw him use or sell harder drugs.

During the same conversation, Bliss said Dennehy couldn't refute anything
because he was dead.

Dennehy's stepfather, Brian Brabazon, expressed outrage when learning of the
tapes Friday.

"You know what? Somebody is going down, because that is bull talking like that,
especially trying to besmirch my son's name when he is dead," Brabazon told the
Star-Telegram.

The tapes do not indicate whether the players followed Bliss' advice.

Under NCAA rules, university staff members and athletes can be cited for
unethical conduct for knowingly furnishing the NCAA or school officials with
false or misleading information relating to possible infractions.

Tom Yeager, chairman of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, said the
rule can be applied even in cases in which individuals ultimately tell the
truth.

Under Texas law, making a false report to a peace officer is a Class B
misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Speaking to Rouse alone in one of the taped conversations, Bliss indicated that
Thomas, the junior-college recruit, would be willing to lie about Dennehy's
activities.

Bliss indicated that Thomas' loyalty stemmed from the fact that Baylor coaches
publicly said they knew nothing about the player making threats against Dennehy
when the matter was raised by Dennehy's friends and family.

"Harvey will do anything," Bliss told Rouse. "And the reason is because we did
it for Harvey."

"... That's why we're in this jam; we stuck up for Harvey. I said there were no
threats, and all these people got ticked at me."

Thomas has denied threatening Dennehy or Dotson and denied involvement in
Dennehy's death.
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