Priest Knew of Gathers’ Money : Lawsuit: Family friend says he never asked Lucille Gathers about funds from her son because he suspected the source.

The Rev. David Hagan, a close friend of the family of Hank Gathers, said he was “uncomfortable” with how Gathers was getting money to give to his mother before he died.

In a declaration expected to be filed today in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Hagan, a Catholic priest, says: “I knew that Lucille was getting money from Hank, and I suspected where Hank was getting the money from, which made me somewhat uncomfortable with the situation, so I never asked Lucille how much money she was getting from Hank or pressed her about the subject.”

Hagan’s declaration is one of several to be filed as part of a response in the family’s $32.5-million lawsuit against Loyola Marymount University and 13 other defendants.

Gathers’ mother, Lucille, and brother, Derrick, have said in depositions that, while on basketball scholarship at Loyola, Hank Gathers received money from Albert Gersten, a school booster. Lucille Gathers said her son gave her about $2,000 and bought her gifts with money he had received from Gersten.

According to Bruce Fagel, the family’s attorney, Gersten’s financial support of Gathers was part of a “deal” made after Gathers’ junior year to keep him from turning professional.

Gersten, a Beverly Hills real estate developer and owner of fast-food franchises, has denied the allegations.

Officials for Loyola claim no knowledge of the payments or any “deal.” Such an arrangement is a clear violation of NCAA rules.

Fagel is filing the declarations in response to a motion by the defendants to deny Gathers’ mother the right to sue for wrongful death, the strongest cause of his suit.

For a parent to sue for wrongful death when there is an heir--in this case Gathers’ 6-year old son, Aaron Crump--the parent must prove a dependency on the deceased for the necessities of life. That motion will be heard Jan. 17.

Fagel also is expected to file responses today to motions involving other causes listed in the suit. One motion, filed by defendant Dr. Charles Swerdlow, asks for the release of Gathers’ tissue and fluid specimens from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office for further analysis. These motions will be heard Jan. 10.

Gathers collapsed March 4 at Gersten Pavilion while playing in a West Coast 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.

Both Lucille and Derrick Gathers claim the money Lucille Gathers received from Hank in the year before he died was used for her basic support. She said she was on welfare from September 1989 until Gathers died and could not work because she had hepatitis and could not get a doctor’s clearance.

In the six months before Gathers’ death, Lucille Gathers said she also received another $600 in cash from her son, Derrick, which “I suspected and later learned had come from Hank (at the time Derrick was a full-time student with no source of income),” she said in the declaration.

Derrick, who attended Cal State Northridge on a basketball scholarship, said previously in a deposition that he also received money directly from Gersten. Northridge officials are filing a report to the NCAA.

Lucille Gathers said that since the death of her son she has lived on a combination of welfare, food stamps, money from Hagan and monies from a bank fund established from donations from friends and supporters of Hank Gathers.

She also said that even though she appreciated the furniture Gathers bought her (a new living room and kitchen dining set), “I knew how Hank must have paid for it and the risks he was taking in doing so.

”. . . I took the money from Hank with the hope that as soon as Hank could finish college he could take care of me without either one of us feeling guilty about where his money was coming from,” she said.

In a previous deposition, Derrick Gathers said that Hank Gathers received money from Gersten. But in his declaration, Derrick Gathers refers to Gersten only as a “sponsor/booster.”

“I knew that Hank was getting substantial amounts of cash from his sponsor/booster at LMU, and on occasion Hank and I discussed the fact that this money that he was getting was ‘under the table,’ ” Derrick Gathers said.

Fagel, reached in Hawaii where he is vacationing, said Derrick was referring to Gersten in that passage.