Feds motion to bar Miller, Wade testimony at trial

Federal prosecutors have asked a federal judge to prevent Arizona's Sean Miller and LSU's Will Wade from testifying at an upcoming bribery trial involving college basketball corruption.

In a motion filed by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman on Friday, his office asked U.S. District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos to preclude the defendants from "offering evidence that they had relationships with other coaches who they did not bribe" and "from putting the NCAA and the NCAA's rules on amateurism on trial."

Steven Haney, an attorney for aspiring agent Christian Dawkins, one of two remaining defendants in the federal criminal case, subpoenaed Miller and Wade last week. The trial is scheduled to begin April 22 in New York.

Haney previously told reporters that he planned to "pull back the curtains" on college basketball's black market.

"These statements, along with the defense counsel's proffer that they intend to elicit testimony from the subpoenaed coaches about their involvement in NCAA rule-breaking by paying student-athletes suggests that the defense may resort in this trial to arguments that pose a risk of attempting to garner the sympathy of the jury, and, therefore, would be categorically inappropriate," the government's motion said.

"The defendants are on trial for serious federal crimes, and the defendants should not be able to use this trial as a referendum on the merits of the NCAA's rules or the state of college basketball, in an impermissible effort to garner sympathy with the jury."

Prosecutors have charged Dawkins and former Adidas consultant Merl Code with bribing three former assistant coaches -- Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans and USC's Tony Bland -- to influence their players to sign with Dawkins' fledgling sports management company once they turned pro.

The three former assistants have pleaded guilty to one felony count of federal bribery charges and are awaiting sentencing.

Haney and Code's attorneys, Mark Moore and Merl Code Sr., couldn't be reached for comment on Friday.

The government also argued in its motion that the defendants' plan to illicit testimony from Miller and Wade that Dawkins didn't bribe them, even though they might have the most influence over their players, is irrelevant.

"Defendant Dawkins has proffered that he intends to call both coaches to testify about how much influence, as a head coach, they have over their student-athletes and how Dawkins did not bribe them," the motion stated. "To the extent that the defendants, as Dawkins's counsel suggested, seeks to introduce evidence that they dealt with men's basketball coaches who they did not bribe, such evidence would constitute impermissible 'good acts' evidence and should be precluded."

Code and Dawkins were convicted in October of federal conspiracy and fraud charges in a separate criminal case involving pay-for-play schemes to steer top recruits to Adidas-sponsored schools, including Kansas, Louisville and NC State. Code and Dawkins were sentenced to six months in prison; former Adidas executive James Gatto was sentenced to nine months. Attorneys for all three men indicated that they planned to appeal the verdicts.