UNLV Report: New Allegations : NCAA: The charges of impropriety include cars for players, intimidation by Tarkanian loyalists and tickets for sports fixer.

A report prepared by University of Nevada Las Vegas officials on the resignation of former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian reveals numerous allegations of rules violations not previously documented by the NCAA.

One of the most serious instances cited in the report was that an employee of a Las Vegas car dealership told the university in 1991 that the dealership had been allowing UNLV players to use its cars “for years.”

The report, which was obtained by The Times, was prepared by university attorneys in response to a request by a Nevada state legislative commission conducting an investigation of Tarkanian’s resignation and other UNLV-related matters.

Tarkanian, now coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs, announced last year that the 1991-92 season would be his last at UNLV. He later attempted to withdraw his resignation, citing a claim that UNLV President Robert Maxson and other school officials conspired to damage the Rebel basketball program. Maxson has denied the charge.

A copy of the university’s report was delivered to the commission on Oct. 1 and is scheduled to be released publicly this week.

Much of the two-volume report, which includes a 55-page narrative and hundreds of pages of exhibits, reviews the highly publicized NCAA investigations of Tarkanian’s programs at Cal State Long Beach and UNLV.

However, the report also describes alleged violations of NCAA rules during Tarkanian’s time at UNLV not mentioned in NCAA documents or media accounts.

UNLV and the NCAA are attempting to resolve a five-year-old infractions case in which the NCAA has charged the school’s basketball program with rules violations in nearly 40 areas, many stemming from the Rebels’ recruitment of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels.

In addition, the university’s report discloses attempts by Tarkanian and his supporters to intimidate or discredit individuals considered disloyal to the coach, including the hiring of a private investigator to examine the personal life of a university employee who had supplied information critical to the NCAA’s pending case against UNLV.

Questioned about the report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week, Tarkanian called it “their typical lies.” He declined to answer questions about many of the matters described in the report, saying his attorneys would respond through the legislative commission’s public hearings.

Perhaps the most serious new charge of impropriety concerning Tarkanian’s program is the report’s description of how an unidentified Las Vegas auto dealership allegedly provided cars to UNLV players.

Quoting an unnamed employee of the dealership, the report states that players were able to use the dealership’s cars without permanently registering them by continuously changing the temporary license tags on the vehicles.

Another previously undisclosed matter involves the salary of a part-time assistant basketball coach for the 1990-91 season.

According to the report, Tarkanian requested that Dennis Finfrock, then UNLV’s interim athletic director, process the paperwork necessary for the part-time assistant coach to receive supplemental pay from the university’s alumni organization. Finfrock denied the request, the report says, because, without actual work being performed by the assistant coach, such a salary supplement would be in violation of NCAA rules.

After Tarkanian’s request was turned down, the report says, a UNLV booster informed the university that he had been asked by Tarkanian to donate the part-time assistant coach’s supplemental pay for that season.

The report states that the university learned, in dealing with the matter, that providing supplemental pay to part-time assistant coaches without appropriate work being performed had been standard procedure in Tarkanian’s program for several years.

The report also recounts a visit to UNLV by NCAA investigators seeking information about a “highly visible” prospect’s official recruiting trip to Las Vegas in 1990.

The investigators, according to the report, sought to know if the recruit and two players had received complimentary passes to a show at a Las Vegas hotel. Such an arrangement would violate NCAA rules.

The two UNLV players denied attending the show, when questioned by the investigators, the report says. However, a subsequent inquiry by the hotel found that the players and the recruit had attended the show on a “comp” basis, and that a basketball staff member had made the arrangement by telling hotel personnel that the arrangement would not violate NCAA rules, according to the report.

A source familiar with the matter identified the recruit as former Lakewood Artesia High star Ed O’Bannon, now at UCLA and a prominent figure in the pending infractions case against UNLV. The source identified the UNLV players involved as former stars Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon.

According to the source, who asked not to be identified, the matter could result in additional charges of major rules violations against the university because of Johnson and Augmon’s attempt to hide the truth from the NCAA.

In describing other aspects of Tarkanian’s program, the university’s report reveals that:

--UNLV boosters hired a private investigator to examine the personal life of a university employee who had provided damaging testimony about the basketball program to university administrators and the NCAA. Tarkanian’s son, Danny, used the private investigator’s report to compile a report of his own in which he attacked the employee as being psychologically and sociologically incapable of telling the truth.

A source familiar with UNLV’s dealings with the NCAA identified the university employee as Ann Mayo, former academic adviser for the Rebel basketball program. She is presently an assistant dean in UNLV’s College of Business and Economics.

--Sobbing as he spoke, a former UNLV basketball player who had reported alleged NCAA rules violations to the university told school officials: “I’m just so scared, OK? People tell me I’m going to end up in the desert.”

The source familiar with UNLV’s dealings with the NCAA, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, identified the former player as Ricky Collier, a guard from Ramona High in Riverside who spent three years at UNLV before transferring to Westmont College in 1986.

--John Peterson, former assistant director of athletic development at UNLV, informed Finfrock that Jerry Tarkanian had asked Peterson for “dirt” on several UNLV athletic department employees. The alleged conversation between Peterson and Tarkanian took place on June 6, 1991, hours after Tarkanian had signed his resignation agreement.

One athletic department employee in which Tarkanian showed an interest during the conversation with Peterson, according to Finfrock, was Debbie Barrentine, an accountant in the athletic development office.

Barrentine had provided school officials with documents indicating that Tarkanian had requested tickets for convicted sports fixer Richard Perry from UNLV’s allotment for the 1987 Final Four. Barrentine had also described conversations in which she quoted Le Riggle, former UNLV athletic ticket manager, as suggesting that Tarkanian expected the documents to be altered to delete Perry’s name.

A few months after Tarkanian’s resignation, a Las Vegas newspaper quoted a student manager for the basketball team, Sean Foster, linking Barrentine to a scheme in which 1991 Final Four tickets were scalped.

The matter was reportedly investigated by the Nevada attorney general’s office, but no charges were filed.