Pennsylvania State Sen. Jake Corman and Treasurer Rob McCord are so sure the NCAA is misusing attorney-client privilege to withhold information that they’re willing to bet on it.
In November, Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey agreed to their request to review nearly 500 documents that had information edited out by the NCAA. Earlier this month, Corman and McCord requested that Judge Covey also review an additional 163 edited documents to determine which – if any – should be released in their entirety.
“If the Court determines that all of the 477 documents now before it have been properly redacted, then Plaintiffs agree to withdraw their objections to the 163 documents at issue,” attorneys for two state officials write in a new court documents filed on Wednesday.
Their wager has a pay-off, however. If the Judge Covey finds that the NCAA improperly claimed attorney-client privilege over some of the information she is currently reviewing, then she has a perfect reason to also review the additional 163 documents.
Ever since Corman and McCord filed their lawsuit in Commonwealth Court last year, the parties have gone back and forth in a game of legal tug-of-war over what documents and information the NCAA is obligated to release. Corman and McCord have repeatedly claimed that the NCAA is wrongly invoking attorney-client privilege to avoiding releasing pertinent information.
In a filing earlier this week, the NCAA accused Corman and McCord of “clogging the Court” by “arbitrarily” objecting every time the athletic organization attempts to invoke privilege over a document. In Wednesday filing, attorneys for Corman and McCord fire back.
“The NCAA omits to mention that they are the ones who were reminded by this Court to refrain from ‘frivolous motions,’” the filing reads.
Judge Covey previously told the NCAA that “‘it is the obligation of any lawyer… not to clog the court with frivolous motions or appeals” in response to a request that the court make a partial judgement in the NCAA’s favor.
Corman and McCord sued the NCAA in an attempt to force the NCAA to abide by the Endowment Act: a piece of state law that would keep the NCAA’s $60 million fine against Penn State within Pennsylvania. The NCAA thinks this law is unconstitutional, and has filed a separate but related lawsuit in federal court against the two state officials.
Judge Covey has set a Jan. 6 trial date in the case to determine the validity of the consent decree, which allowed the NCAA to impose its $60 million fine and other sanctions against Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
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