Staggers Case Cited by NCAA : College basketball: Texas El Paso is accused of 13 violations, including improperly recruiting ex-Crenshaw star.

A yearlong NCAA investigation into Texas El Paso’s basketball program has resulted in allegations of 13 violations, including some that involve former Crenshaw High star John Staggers, university officials announced Tuesday.

The NCAA opened an investigation into El Paso’s program in December of 1989 after articles in The Times and Newsday outlined improprieties.

Of five serious charges leveled against UTEP, one centered on Staggers, who said Tuesday that he has made an unwritten commitment to attend Nevada Las Vegas next fall. Staggers told The Times last June that he gave NCAA investigators a signed statement describing free housing, meals and transportation he got through El Paso coaches.

“I don’t know how I feel right now,” Staggers said of the NCAA allegations. “I’d like it to be behind me, but it keeps coming up. I never even played there. I don’t know why they make such a big deal out of me. I just told the truth.”

One NCAA allegation accuses an assistant coach of tutoring Staggers, then a recruit, at least four times to prepare him for three General Equivalency Diploma exams. Staggers went to El Paso without earning a high school degree from Crenshaw.

The assistant also is accused of arranging for Staggers to retake the test, although a six-month waiting period had not expired, and enrolling him in a federally funded GED preparation class intended for migrant workers and their families.

University officials said Tuesday that they will conduct their own investigation, and have until May 7 to respond to the allegations.

“We do want to find out if these are indeed true and that takes an investigation on our part,” Athletic Director Brad Hovious said at a news conference in El Paso.

University President Diana Natalicio appointed attorney Ricardo Adauto III to conduct the investigation.

Don Haskins, the Miners’ coach for 30 years, has denied allegations contained in published reports in the past. He did not attend Tuesday’s news conference and could not be reached for comment.

Other charges made public Tuesday:

--The men’s basketball staff allegedly arranged for a booster to pay a prospective player for work done at the booster’s home. The booster, identified by a former player as restaurateur Mike Daeuble, is accused of paying $300 in cash for 10 hours of work. Daeuble could not be reached for comment.

--A university athletic department official was accused of giving a player a round-trip airline ticket home. Former player Rodney McKoy has said he was given a free airline ticket.

--Boosters allegedly provided free cars to players, a charge that was reported in a Times article on former UTEP player Shelton Boykin, now at Cal State Northridge.

--A coach allegedly twice lied to the NCAA enforcement staff about providing transportation numerous times to prospective and enrolled players and to a prospective player’s mother.

The NCAA also said the university poorly monitors and controls the program and has failed to educate athletics department staff members, students, athletes and boosters on its rules.

Natalicio said a more detailed list of allegations will be released after it is reviewed by University of Texas System attorneys in regard to students’ rights to privacy.

Staggers, a 6-foot-5 swingman, was the leading scorer on a Crenshaw team that went 28-0 before losing in overtime to Manuel Arts in the 1987-88 Southern California regional final. He was chosen City 4-A player of the year.

He signed a letter of intent to attend UTEP in November of 1987, but never played there. He enrolled at Columbia Community College in Northern California in 1989 and sat out the season.

But Staggers left Columbia after the fall semester and enrolled at L.A. Southwest College, where he is trying to earn an associate arts degree in computer programming, he said.

“They (UNLV coaches) just told me to get through school and get the degree, and then come out,” he said.

Times staff writer Danny Robbins contributed to this story.