Walters Says He’s Innocent : College football: Penalized USC running back says NCAA didn’t listen to his side of story.

USC running back Shawn Walters said Monday night that he feels falsely accused and alone in his struggle for vindication, after an NCAA investigation ended his college career for allegedly accepting money from an agent.

Walters, who had a promising career at USC, said he’s frustrated after a two-month ordeal in which his side of the story has been disregarded by NCAA officials.

USC is filing an appeal on his behalf to the NCAA eligibility committee, which is expected to hear it within the next week.

The investigation concluded that Walters received the money through his roommates, Corey Tucker and former Moorpark College football player Melvin Nunnery, who worked for Caron as recruiters.

A ledger obtained by The Times showed Walters accepted $15,900 since last year from sports agent Robert Troy Caron, an Oxnard personal injury lawyer who owns Pro Manage sports agency.

“I told them [NCAA] that I never received the money the ledger said I did,” Walters told The Times in his first lengthy interview on the issue. “The amount of money on the ledger doesn’t even add up right.”

Walters says that he did not receive any money from Tucker and did not know that his roommates worked as recruiters for Caron.

He insists that the money he took from Nunnery were loans between friends. “It was like we would go to dinner and he [Nunnery] would pay,” Walters said. “But then other times I would pay.”

Walters says the amount of money he took from Nunnery was closer to $2,000.

Walters says he did meet Caron at a basketball game but that he didn’t know he was an agent and that was the extent of their involvement.

“It’s frustrating that nobody believes me,” Walters said. “I told the NCAA that my electricity was turned off and my credit cards were overdue during the time they say I was collecting all this money.”

Walters, a junior, had played in three games this season when the NCAA and Pacific 10 Conference initiated their investigation.

USC petitioned to restore Walters’s eligibility, but the NCAA took a tough stand against a student-athlete’s involvement with a sports agent and denied the request.

“That other guy [California’s Tremaine Fowlkes] was caught with two cars, and he’s only losing a year,” Walters said.

Walters is referring to Cal star basketball player Tremaine Fowlkes, who was suspended for one year by the NCAA for accepting $1,800 toward the purchase of a car from a former sports agent.

Walters said that he has kept himself in shape. If his appeal is denied, then he plans to make himself eligible for the NFL supplemental draft in March.

“I’m all by myself in this,” Walters said. “I can only hope somebody with the NCAA listens to what really happened.”