Deposition: Kimble Got Money, Too : Loyola: Attorney for Gathers family says player also received funds from Albert Gersten.

Bruce Fagel, the attorney for the family of Hank Gathers, said Saturday that Loyola Marymount University officials not only knew Gathers was receiving improper cash payments when he was on a basketball scholarship to the school, but they encouraged the “deal” by ignoring it. Speaking from Hawaii, where he is vacationing, Fagel also implicated Bo Kimble, saying that Gathers’ mother, Lucille, saw Kimble receive money from Albert Gersten, the booster she says also gave money to her son.

“In Lucille Gathers’ testimony, in her deposition, she says she saw Albert Gersten going around a dinner table after a game, peeling off money and giving it to the players,” Fagel said, adding that Lucille told him the incident occurred after an NCAA tournament game in 1989.

“She said she saw Gersten give money to Hank and to Bo, but then the attorneys started going down the list of players, asking Mrs. Gathers who else received the money, and she wouldn’t identify any others.”

Fagel said Lucille Gathers’ testimony was taken in connection with a wrongful death suit filed by Gathers’ family against Loyola and 13 other defendants.

Kimble, reached at the Los Angeles Airport, said he would not comment on the allegation. “I have been advised by my attorney not to give a comment because of pending litigation,” Kimble said upon returning from the Clippers’ game Saturday in Salt Lake City.

Fagel was reacting to a Times story, reported Thursday, which quoted from depositions. His statement Saturday came from additional information from other depositions.

The Times reported Thursday that Lucille Gathers testified under oath that she received $2,000 in cash from her son, plus gifts, while he was attending Loyola. She said Gathers bought the gifts with money he received from Gersten, a Loyola Marymount alumnus and Beverly Hills real estate developer. Gersten is the main contributor to the university gymnasium, named for his father.

He has previously denied allegations that he gave Gathers money. Gersten could not be reached Saturday.

Such gifts to a player are violations of NCAA rules, and if the accusations found are true, Loyola will face penalties by the NCAA and the West Coast Conference, Loyola’s league.

Gathers collapsed March 4 at Gersten Pavilion while playing in a conference tournament game and was pronounced dead 1 hour 40 minutes later. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be cardiomyopathy, a heart disorder.

Gathers’ mother, brothers Derrick and Charles, and an aunt, Carol Livingston, filed a $32.5-million suit claiming negligence, conspiracy and wrongful death. The suit has been consolidated with another filed by Gathers’ 6-year-old son, Aaron Crump.

Fagel seeks to prove that Lucille Gathers was being supported by her son to sue for wrongful death, the strongest cause of his suit. A motion to decide the issue will be heard in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Jan. 17.

Saturday, Fagel issued a statement on behalf of the family in response to The Times report, saying:

”. . . The family does not accuse Albert Gersten of doing anything except being Hank’s friend and helping the Gathers family survive financially before Hank’s death.

“After Hank’s death, both Gersten and his wife were there to provide moral support for the family. . . .

“Al Gersten did nothing wrong then or now. The real villains in this story are not Lucille or Hank for accepting money or Al Gersten for giving it, but rather Loyola for encouraging a deal involving Hank Gathers, then reaping all the benefits of that deal. And now they are trying to deny the existence of a deal which flies in the face of all the facts which are known about Hank Gathers life.”

Fagel said the “deal” was a way to keep Gathers in school instead of turning professional after his junior season, in which he led the nation in scoring and rebounding.

“There was no written contract, but Hank knew that his mother’s disability payments (for hepatitis) were about to run out, and that his statistics in his junior year would put him in the top 10 in the NBA draft,” Fagel said. “His mom wanted him to stay in school to get his degree, but Hank also wanted to take care of himself and his family.

“So then Gathers decides to stay in school, and the next thing he moves into a $1,100 a month apartment of which he pays the entire rent. He gets a brand new car and has enough cash to do his thing, and if that meant going to the (horse) track then he could, and he has enough money to take care of his mother. And there are several components to this deal that clearly had to involve people beyond Gersten and (then head coach Paul) Westhead.”

Fagel said that Westhead, in his deposition, denied knowing anything about Gathers receiving money from Gersten. “But I think that is the reason Westhead left the school, because he knew what was coming down and he didn’t want to bear the brunt of an NCAA investigation,” Fagel said.

Westhead left Loyola to become coach of the Denver Nuggets of the NBA. “I knew nothing of what he was talking about (the alleged payments),” Westhead said Saturday from Washington, where the Nuggets played the Bullets. “His assumptions (that an NCAA investigation played a part in his leaving Loyola for the Nuggets) are erroneous. Beyond that, I have no comment.”

In his senior year, Gathers drove a new Mercury Cougar leased from Southwest Leasing and Rental Company in Los Angeles. It was returned to that company in July by Derrick Gathers, Gathers brother.

“The car was co-signed by a business associate of Al Gersten, who had no affiliation with Loyola, but had no reason to co-sign other than that he was close to Gersten,” Fagel said.

Brian Quinn, Loyola’s athletic director, has repeatedly denied the allegations and said he was satisfied with Gathers’ explanation that he obtained his new car by getting a loan from a friend in Philadelphia.

Quinn said Saturday: “Hank wanted to live off campus and he received the stipend for room and board (around $600), and that is normal. A lot of our athletes want to live off campus. It sounds to me that Mr. Fagel wants to try the case in the newspaper instead of the court system. Let this go and be decided through the proper legal system.”

For Loyola’s basketball program, that legal system is the NCAA, which has not commented specifically on the case. Fagel and Lucille Gathers say that Derrick Gathers also received money directly from Gersten.

“In Derrick’s deposition testimony, he says that he used to go to Gersten’s house with Hank to pick up money,” Fagel said. “At first, Derrick said Hank would go upstairs and return with the money, and they would leave. Then Gersten became comfortable with Derrick and would hand Hank the money in front of him. After a while, Derrick said Gersten would give him cash, too.”

It is not clear if Cal State Northridge, which Derrick attended on a basketball scholarship, could be penalized by the NCAA if Gersten gave money to him directly or indirectly. Northridge is filing a report to the NCAA.

What is clear is that penalties Loyola might face have nothing to do with the suit the Gathers’ family is pursuing.

”. . . The family does not consider NCAA rules to be appropriate under these conditions,” Fagel said.

Times staff writer Jim Hodges contributed to this story.