Football
Associated Press 19y

Sentencing in recruiting case postponed after article appears

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A federal judge delayed sentencing for a
businessman convicted of paying a high school coach to steer a
football player to Alabama following a newspaper report Thursday
that the player's family got a big cut of the payoff.

The sentencing hearing for Logan Young, a longtime Crimson Tide
booster, began Thursday afternoon but will continue Monday so new
testimony can be received from his chief accuser, former high
school coach Lynn Lang.

Defense lawyer James Neal said an article in The Commercial
Appeal of Memphis casts doubt on whether defensive lineman Albert
Means, the player at the heart of a recruiting scandal, was a
helpless victim or a payoff recipient.

Federal sentencing guidelines could call for stronger punishment
for Young if he was the prime architect of a payoff conspiracy and
Means was a "vulnerable victim."

"You cannot be a vulnerable victim if you're a willing
participant," Neal said in asking U.S District Court Judge Daniel
Breen to continue the hearing.

The Commercial Appeal quoted Lang as saying the Means family got
about $60,000 of the $150,000 he says Young paid to have Means sign
with Alabama five years ago.

Breen gave Neal permission to call Lang into court to say if the
newspaper article was accurate.

Defense lawyers also filed a request for a new trial based on
the article. No date was scheduled for a hearing on that request.

Neal said prosecutors portrayed Means as a victim at Young's
trial and evidence that Means got a large amount of money from Lang
could have changed the jury's verdict.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Godwin said Means was a victim of
the recruiting conspiracy even if his family got some of the money.
Godwin described Means as a naive teenager from a low-income,
broken home who trusted his high school coach.

In its article, The Commercial Appeal quoted Lang as saying he
was tired of talk that he kept all of the money for himself.

"I took care of that family," Lang told the newspaper, "and I
took care of Albert all through his senior year and up until he
went to Alabama."

Means, who has consistently refused to talk about the scandal,
declined comment on Lang's allegations.

Young was convicted in February on money laundering and
racketeering charges. Godwin indicated in court that sentencing
guidelines call for 24 to 30 months in prison.

The judge can deviate from those guidelines, and defense lawyers
can seek a sentence that does not include prison time. Such a
sentence could include a fine, probation or house arrest.

At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the defense called
medical witnesses who said Young suffers for kidney disease and
needs a transplant.

The government countered that Young could get dialysis and other
medical care in prison.

Lang was the main prosecution witness at Young's trial. Lang
said then that he helped the Means family financially but did not
indicate that large amounts of money were involved.

Prosecutors and the NCAA said Means was unaware Lang was
shopping him around to college recruiters.

Lang testified that other universities, including Georgia,
Kentucky, Arkansas, Memphis, Mississippi, Michigan State and
Tennessee, offered him money or jobs to get Means.

No charges were filed against anyone from those schools. Three
former coaches, Rip Scherer of Memphis, Jim Donnan of Georgia and
Ivy Williams, an Alabama assistant, testified Lang was lying.

Means' recruitment became part of an NCAA investigation that led
to sanctions against Alabama in 2002, costing the Crimson Tide
scholarships and bowl appearances.

Lang, former head coach at Trezevant High in Memphis, testified
against Young while waiting to be sentenced on a guilty plea to
crossing state lines as part of a racketeering conspiracy.

Lang later was sentenced to two years probation and 500 hours of
community service work after prosecutors supported his request to
avoid prison.

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