Documents: Larry Johnson Had Car With Booster Ties

While leading Nevada Las Vegas to an undefeated regular season last year, All-American forward Larry Johnson had the use of a $32,000 sports car that was the property of an automobile dealership with ties to the UNLV athletic program, court and state records show.

Such an arrangement is an apparent violation of NCAA rules that prohibit coaches and other representatives of a school’s athletic interests from providing student-athletes with benefits not available to the student body in general.

Johnson, selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the first pick in the 1991 NBA draft, drove a 1989 Chevrolet Corvette belonging to Fletcher Jones Import Center of Las Vegas last season at least two weeks before the car was sold by the dealership to a high school coach in Dallas, Johnson’s hometown, the records show.

Fletcher Jones Import Center, a Mercedes dealership, is one of six Las Vegas car dealerships owned by the Fletcher Jones family. The family’s original Las Vegas dealership, Fletcher Jones Chevrolet, has donated both courtesy cars and money to the UNLV athletic department in exchange for basketball season tickets, according to school records.

School records also show that Johnson twice left complimentary passes to UNLV basketball games last season for Bernie Schiappa, general manager of Fletcher Jones Import Center. One of the occasions on which Johnson left passes for Schiappa was UNLV’s game against Duke in the national semifinals in Indianapolis.

As a senior last season, Johnson won the John Wooden Award, given annually to the top college basketball player in the nation.

He obtained the Corvette less than two months after UNLV received a letter of official inquiry from the NCAA charging the basketball program with rules violations in 29 areas.

Those allegations remain unresolved because of a Nevada statute, signed into law last April, that requires NCAA enforcement proceedings involving Nevada schools to conform to standards of legal due process. The NCAA has initiated legal action challenging the constitutionality of the law.

UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian said he has no direct knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Johnson’s use of the Corvette, but added that all vehicles that were driven by Johnson during the player’s two years at UNLV were scrutinized by the NCAA and the university.

“All I know is that our own university and the NCAA checked out Larry’s cars thoroughly--every way imaginable,” he said.

UNLV legal counsel Brad Booke said, however, that the school has not examined how Johnson obtained the Corvette. Booke indicated that UNLV would look into the matter as a result of The Times’ findings.

“The documents suggest some questions need to be answered,” he said.

UNLV officials recently concluded an inquiry into how J.R. Rider, the leading scorer for the Rebels this season, obtained a 1991 Ford Explorer from Fletcher Jones Import Center.

Rider was driving the vehicle when he was arrested Jan. 24 on a charge of obstructing a police officer after an incident at a Las Vegas fast-food restaurant. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the vehicle, which was impounded, was unregistered, carrying only an expired 10-day permit.

Booke said the university found no impropriety in Rider’s use of the Explorer.

In Johnson’s case, Clark County (Nev.) Justice Court records show he was ticketed on Feb. 3, 1991, for driving an unregistered vehicle. The citation notes that the vehicle, an ’89 Chevy, carried a temporary registration tag that had expired six days earlier.

The vehicle identification number on the citation matches that of a Corvette that was obtained by Fletcher Jones Import Center from another Las Vegas dealership, Norm Baker Motors, on Feb. 1, 1991, and sold to Alex Gillum of Dallas for $32,000 on Feb. 18, according to motor vehicle records in Texas, where the car was eventually registered.

The Feb. 18 date shows up twice in Texas motor vehicle records of the transaction between Gillum and Fletcher Jones Import Center--on the bill of sale and on the title transfer.

A high school basketball coach and recreation center director, Gillum has coached Johnson in summer leagues and helped him financially. Although they are not related, Gillum often has been referred to as Johnson’s “uncle.” When Johnson arrived at UNLV in the fall of 1989, he was driving a 1989 Nissan 300ZX that had been purchased in Dallas by Gillum.

Gillum said he came to Las Vegas during the weekend of Feb. 16-17 last year after learning from Johnson that the 300ZX had been damaged in an accident. During that trip, Gillum said, he was persuaded by Johnson to buy the Corvette from Schiappa. All steps required for the sale, including financing, were completed that weekend, Gillum said.

Asked how Johnson could have driven the car at least two weeks before its sale, Gillum said: “He could easily have had the thing before he called me and told (Schiappa), ‘Let me try this out. Maybe my uncle will buy it for me.’ ”

Johnson did not respond to a request for an interview made through the Charlotte Hornets’ media relations office.

When first contacted by The Times, Schiappa said: “Larry never bought a car from me. Never.” He also said he did not know Gillum. When the records were outlined for him, he said: “I have no comment.”

In an interview last month with the Review-Journal in which he denied impropriety in the J.R. Rider matter, Schiappa criticized UNLV President Robert Maxson for his treatment of Tarkanian, who will step down at the end of this season.

“During the past 12 years, I’ve seen this basketball team do so much good for this town and this university,” he was quoted as saying. “(Basketball) . . . built the dorms and other nice facilities and made (UNLV) a nicer place for my daughter to go to school. . . .

“What’s happened (between Maxson and Tarkanian) is a shame. . . . (UNLV administrators) didn’t show any class.”

Schiappa also described himself in the interview as having been “like a father” to Johnson.

Ted Jones, president of Fletcher Jones, Las Vegas, Inc., said he was unaware of Johnson’s dealings with Fletcher Jones Import Center.

Customers can obtain cars from his dealerships before sales are complete, Jones said, but only in deals that have been “initiated and signed” pending approval of financing.

Asked to assess the Johnson situation, as presented by the court and motor vehicle records, a Southern California car dealer said: “It sure isn’t the way you would normally conduct business. When you sell a car, you do a credit check, put (the vehicle) on the road and mop up the details in the next 24 hours or so.”

Times staff writer Elliott Almond contributed to this story.