Federal Agencies Boosted Probe

In the wee hours of a February morning in 1996, an expensive SUV driven by Michigan basketball player Maurice Taylor, and carrying teammates and a top recruit, rolled over on the way home from a night of partying in Detroit.

The most serious injury was a broken arm.

Six years later, because of questions that accident prompted, Sacramento King star Chris Webber--already three years into his NBA career at the time and nowhere near the scene--faces federal perjury charges as Michigan awaits penalties in what appears to be the biggest-dollar infraction case in NCAA history.

Had that vehicle never rolled, questions about why Taylor was driving such a lavish vehicle might never have led to Ed Martin, a self-styled booster who was discovered to have been running an illegal lottery ring and funneling money to Detroit players since Webber was in high school.

The case is a study in the haphazard manner in which NCAA violations sometimes come to light--and testimony to the solemn force a criminal probe lends to university and NCAA investigations that are often toothless because they lack subpoena power and the threat of perjury prosecution.

Not until the money trail led to Martin, who tried to launder proceeds from the illegal lottery at a Ford Motor Co. plant via “loans” to high school and college players, did federal investigators become involved, adding heft to an investigation that had proved little.

The FBI, the IRS and the Organized Crime Strike Force Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Detroit combined on a probe that has led to guilty pleas by 15 defendants, among them Martin--”Uncle Eddie” to a generation of young Detroit players.

Though basketball was only a small part of the story, the alleged payments by Martin to four players and their families before and during the players’ time at Michigan amount to a staggering $616,000.

“Law enforcement brings the power of subpoenas and the ability to require witnesses to offer complete and truthful information,” said David Price, the NCAA vice president for enforcement, who would not discuss the Michigan case, citing policy, but addressed questions about NCAA investigative procedures.

“It would make an enormous difference if we were able to require people to talk to us. Very rarely do we get former student-athletes in the public arena to cooperate.

“But we don’t try to fantasize or believe we would get the kind of legal tools such as subpoena power. This is a college association of institutions of higher education. I don’t think colleges would want to use those kinds of powers.”

Until federal authorities stepped in, investigations by Michigan, the NCAA and an outside law firm hired by the university were met by denials and resistance and proved only minor violations--some as simple as Martin’s giving a player a cake or appearing at a recruit’s home with then-coach Steve Fisher.

The federal grand jury investigating the illegal lottery was able to compel more complete testimony--including admissions by former Michigan players Robert Traylor--the one who broke his arm in the accident--and Louis Bullock that they had received substantial loans from Martin.

“They didn’t lie to the grand jury,” Steve Fishman, an attorney who represents Traylor and Bullock told the Detroit News in August. “They didn’t commit any crime. They may have committed an NCAA violation, but they have nothing to worry about.”

Webber, however, has insisted he received smaller amounts of money but nowhere near the $280,000 federal authorities allege.

“I did not lie to the grand jury,” Webber told reporters in a statement he read Tuesday after a workout in Sacramento. “This case is about a man who befriended kids like myself, preying on our naivete, our innocence, claiming that he loved us and wanted to support us, but later wanting to cash in on that love and support that we thought was free.”

(There are no allegations, nor is there evidence, that Ed Martin ever sought to influence players to alter the outcome of Michigan games.)

Still, the large amounts of money funneled to players leave Michigan facing penalties for major infractions more than a decade after Webber arrived at Michigan as the centerpiece of the “Fab Five” recruiting class.

Add to the indignity that the current athletic director, named to the post after the violations occurred, shares his last name with Martin, the booster who operated the illegal lottery.

“Let me tell you, in the last month, I have been introduced for two speeches as, ‘And now we present, I’d like you to welcome the athletic director at the University of Michigan, Ed Martin,’ ” Athletic Director Bill Martin said. “The first one, I thought it was funny. The second, I got a little irate.”

Michigan, with a historically clean athletic program, is cooperating with the NCAA in order to speed a resolution and perhaps mitigate the penalties.

“This period in Michigan’s basketball history goes back three coaches, three athletic directors, three, maybe four presidents,” Bill Martin said. “So the big thing we want to do is get it behind us.”

A decision on penalties could be made by the end of the academic year. The case could go before the NCAA committee on infractions in early 2003, with a decision to follow in six to eight weeks.

It is not an easy case.

NCAA rules call for major violations to be punished by two years of probation, recruiting limitations, possible postseason bans and the forfeiture of games involving ineligible players--a policy that could strip Michigan of its 1992 and ’93 Final Four appearances and result in significant financial penalties.

An argument could be made that Michigan is being subjected to double jeopardy because the NCAA accepted a 1997 report by an outside law firm that found no major violations--or that with all the principals in the case long-since gone from Michigan, the statute of limitations should have expired.

But the NCAA’s four-year statute of limitations nevertheless covers the infractions because the violations were alleged to have continued into 1999, Bullock’s final year at Michigan.

Still, the NCAA has a history of going easy on schools that have cooperated, particularly in cases where the key figures are no longer there. (Fisher, now at San Diego State, was fired in 1997 after an investigation questioned his role in arranging complimentary tickets for Ed Martin but has said he was unaware of any payments to players.)

“The committee has and often does back down, based on mitigating circumstances,” the NCAA’s Price said.

In this case, however, the message and the precedent of a light sentence could be damning, given the amount of money involved.

“Yes, everybody has said, ‘Fall on your sword now,’ do A, B, C, D,” Bill Martin said. “We’re not resigned to anything at this time.

“One of the difficulties here is, we have a nontraditional booster,” he added, noting that Ed Martin is not a Michigan alumnus and that he befriended young players who went on to other schools as well.

“I recall reading articles about him pulling up in his gold Mercedes with a long fur coat, pulling a pair of basketball shoes out of the trunk of his car to give to some kid on a high school or junior high playground.

“We have events that happened, what, eight, nine years ago. The kids that are currently playing on this team were in junior high school at that time.”

Michigan’s best argument might be to try to get credit for time already served--”de facto probation,” Bill Martin called it.

“If you look at this program since the early ‘90s, it has truly suffered,” he said. “Suffered in terms of performance on the court, in terms of performance off the court, in terms of attendance, interest. It’s really been a real challenge for us.”

The final challenge will be the one faced by the current coach, Tommy Amaker, and his players, for the excesses of years ago.

“Tommy’s a very tough guy,” Bill Martin said. “We discussed this during the hiring process, that in fact this was here.”

And by the way, Bill Martin hopes Ann Arbor never sees another Fab Five.

“If you had the five best players in the country at each position and you can recruit them and put them all on one team in one year, should you do it, or not?

“My answer is no, because they’re not going to be there.

“If a kid simply wants to go play basketball as a steppingstone to the NBA, he shouldn’t come to Michigan.”