A Year After, Nothing Settled in Gathers Case : Lawsuits: Questions keep popping up, but answers aren’t forthcoming.

Those who knew Hank Gathers shake their heads at what has happened this past year since his death. Few can perceive Gathers involved in legal or emotional banter, pointing fingers or publicly voicing sensitive issues.

But some of those same people who sense the irony also have employed the strategies and methods of about 30 attorneys representing 10 firms. Add the media, and Gathers has not been allowed to die.

The headlines have been unrelenting, with each building on the previous until either the murkiness surrounding the story clears or remains obscure.

There is the Loyola Marymount booster who allegedly gave Gathers money when he was on scholarship. The booster denies it.

There is the new car Gathers obtained in his senior year, which was returned to the dealership shortly after his death. Gathers told Loyola officials he had obtained the car through a loan from a Philadelphia bank. They were satisfied.

Then attorneys for the estate received a bill from the dealership for $4,000. A short time later they received a check from the dealership for $600, payable to Eric (Hank) Gathers. The check was marked overpayment--but by whom?

Both Bruce Fagel, the Gathers’ family attorney, and Albert Gersten, a Loyola booster, have said they know who helped Gathers get the car. But nobody is talking.

“Why bring another name into this?” Fagel asked. “This is something the NCAA would be more interested in than having to do with our case.”

His case, a $32.5-million wrongful death suit filed last April by Gathers’ mother, Lucille, brothers Charles and Derrick and an aunt, Carole Livingston, has kept Hank’s story alive. A subsequent suit for an unspecified amount, filed on behalf of Gathers’ son, Aaron Crump, and the estate, has been combined with the Gathers’ family suit.

The 14 defendants for each suit are the same and include Loyola, school officials, former coach Paul Westhead and the doctors who treated Gathers.

On Friday, a retired California judge will sit in on the first voluntary settlement conference, but attorneys for both sides say they don’t expect to settle. The case is scheduled for trial Sept. 3.

“They want too much money, and the defendants are not willing to pay anything,” said Wayne Boehle, the attorney for Loyola.

In November, Fagel submitted a $6.5-million offer to settle, but the offer went unanswered by the defendants.

“There is too much hostility among the attorneys for the case to settle,” said Martin Krimsky, the Philadelphia attorney who represents Gathers’ son and estate. “The attorneys ought to focus on what is best for their clients. I think we will talk and enlighten each other on March 8, but I would be surprised if anything comes out of this talk.”

Depositions, which have been taken the past eight months, are almost finished. Speculation is that several of the defendants will soon be stricken from the case, including a few of the doctors.

Meanwhile, independent film producer Jim McGillen has signed a contract with the Tribune Co. to fund a movie project on Gathers and Bo Kimble. It is a project McGillen has been working on for a year.

The Tribune Co. owns KTLA-TV (Channel 5), where Gathers and Kimble served an internship in the sports department under sportscaster Ed Arnold and producer Cathy Karp, a factor that helped McGillen secure funding.

Despite the controversy surrounding Hank’s death and his friendship with Kimble, McGillen envisions the same story he set out to film last spring.

“Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble were friends, maybe Bo wasn’t Hank’s best friend, maybe he was his third best friend,” McGillen said. “But regardless, these were two good guys from the same place who had two good futures ahead of them, and one died.

“All of the junk that has come out does not taint this project. These were two good guys.”