Details of Loan Continue to Surface

Information on USC basketball guard Jeff Trepagnier’s controversial car loan continued to trickle out Thursday.

“The loan I co-signed for was a student loan,” said Warren Edmonson, Trepagnier’s father-in-law. “It was never a car loan.”

Trepagnier later said that was correct, that the car lease was co-signed by his uncle, Charles Lovely.

The loan Edmonson co-signed came from Bank One, a Virginia-based institution that offers students and their parents an “Education One College Loan.” Amounts range from $1,500 to $25,000. Such loans can be unsecured. Students who do not meet income or credit criteria may apply with an eligible co-borrower. Interest rates range from 9%-16%.

Although the loan brochure says the loans are “for books, tuition, living expenses, fees, supplies and other education-related expenses,” a loan official said Thursday the bank does not usually ask applicants what the money is to be used for.

Edmonson, originally identified as co-signer of the three-year lease Trepagnier took out on his sport utility vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, said Trepagnier got the Bank One loan for $23,000 last summer. He said Trepagnier gave some of the money to his parents, then used $10,000 as the down payment and to pay off the first year of the lease. Trepagnier does not have to resume payments until August, if he so chooses.

“Jeff had tried other avenues to get the loan and was not successful,” Edmonson said. “I told him paying back the loan was his responsibility. He said he understands and will handle it.

“But I wanted to help him. He is like a son to me. He’s been in our family going on four years.”

The loan came under the scrutiny of the NCAA when the organization began investigating Trepagnier after a trip he took to Las Vegas in September with Tito Maddox, a longtime friend who plays basketball at Fresno State. The NCAA determined the plane fare had been paid for by a friend of Maddox who allegedly represented a sports agent. Maddox eventually served an eight-game suspension.

Trepagnier sat out the first three games of the season because of a stress fracture in his left foot, then was suspended by USC Coach Henry Bibby in December while the investigation continued. He was cleared to resume play last week by the NCAA, after he had married Edmonson’s daughter, Malika, a scholarship track athlete at USC.

The NCAA originally had said he had to get another bank loan co-signer because Edmonson’s wife, Barbara, was working at USC as a volunteer track coach.

Unable to find another loan co-signer, Trepagnier and Malika--who were planning to marry after they graduate in June--inquired if he would be cleared if they were to marry and he became part of the Edmonson family.

NCAA officials said yes. So on Jan. 3, Edmonson paid to fly Trepagnier and Malika to Las Vegas, where they were married.

“I would do anything for my daughter,” Edmonson said. “And I want those two to have some peace.”

Barbara Edmonson, Malika’s stepmother, was a gold and silver medalist in the 1968 Olympics and had been the USC women’s track and field coach until resigning in 1999.

“I have not been on USC’s payroll for nearly two years,” she said. “I’m not paid and I don’t recruit for them. But when [Trepagnier] got in trouble with the NCAA, they said even as a volunteer assistant, I still represent USC, and he would have to change the co-signer on the student loan. There was no problem with the car.

“I was not involved with the car, either. But since I’m married to Warren, there was a gray area on the other loan. Rules are rules, but the NCAA could still be more student-friendly.”

Warren Edmonson is a two-time NCAA 100-meter champion and member of two UCLA national championship outdoor track teams. He is an LAPD officer who will celebrate his 20th year on the force in June. He has been the girls’ track coach at Playa del Rey St. Bernard High, and is currently an assistant coach of the women’s track team at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Staff Writer Valerie Gutierrez contributed to this story.