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The Louisville basketball scandal took some interesting turns last week. Head coach Rick Pitino said he has no plans to resign, a U of L student filed suit against author/”madam” Katina Powell and the publisher of her book, and Powell said her further cooperation with investigators would hinge on receiving criminal immunity.
Pitino prefaced a blog post on his website previewing the 2015-16 season with this message to Cardinal fans:
“I will not resign and let you down. Someday I will walk away in celebration of many memorable years but that time is not now. I do not fight these accusations by others but rather turn the other cheek. Couldn’t do it at 33, but at 63 it’s the wise thing to do. Let’s let the investigators do their job and we will play basketball.”
In addition, U of L president Dr. James Ramsey and athletic director Tom Jurich both said Pitino would not be asked to resign at this time.
Also last week, Kyle Hornback, a sophomore at Louisville, filed suit against Powell and The Indianapolis Business Journal, alleging Powell’s book “tarnishes the university and reduces the value of her education,” according to an article in The Courier-Journal by Andrew Wolfson. Hornback’s attorney, Nader Shunnarah, said the suit was filed on the principle that if Powell committed the criminal acts described in the book, she should not legally profit from them.
After Powell made the rounds of the ESPN “car wash” and appeared with her daughters on ABC’s The View, her attorney, Larry Wilder, told Louisville radio station ESPN 680 she would not cooperate with investigators from U of L or the NCAA without immunity from prosecution. Neither the university nor the NCAA can offer criminal immunity, and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office cannot make such an offer before criminal charges are filed.