http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/spo...s-to-coach
OSU football: Source of e-mails to Tressel revealed
Columbus lawyer was a walk-on at Ohio State in the '80s
Thursday, March 10, 2011 04:21 AM
By Tim May, Jill Riepenhoff, Mike Wagner and Randy Ludlow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Football chat
Tim May answers your questions about the recent developments within the Ohio State football program, NOON TODAY, dispatch.com/osuchat
More football
* Transcript of today's OSU football online chat
Thursday, March 10, 2011
* Tressel timeline is lengthy
Thursday, March 10, 2011
* OSU football: Source of e-mails to Tressel revealed
Thursday, March 10, 2011
* Michael Arace commentary: NCAA may not tread lightly on Tressel
Thursday, March 10, 2011
* National media have no sympathy for OSU
Thursday, March 10, 2011
* 'The Daily Hunter' blog: Tressel loyalists still there, but number is shrinking
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tarnished image
* Complete coverage from The Dispatch
Self-report
* Read the letter that Ohio State sent to the NCAA (PDF)
E-mails
* Read the April 2 e-mail exchange between Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel and an attorney (PDF)
* Read the initial April 16 e-mail exchange between Tressel and the attorney (PDF)
* Read the second April 16 e-mail message from the attorney to Tressel (PDF)
* Read Tressel's June 6 reply to a June 1 e-mail exchange with the attorney (PDF)
Columbus lawyer Christopher T. Cicero was a minor figure as a walk-on football player in the 1980s at Ohio State University.
Today, he is a central player in a scandal that has tarnished Jim Tressel, the man who then was one of his assistant coaches and is now the head coach.
Cicero, 54, sent Tressel e-mails last spring warning that some of the current players were selling memorabilia to a tattoo-parlor owner who's under federal investigation.
Those e-mails are proof that Tressel knew of possible NCAA violations and failed to report the information to Ohio State officials, leading the university to impose a two-game suspension and a $250,000 fine as punishment.
Ohio State would not divulge Cicero's name, blacking out all identifying information from the e-mails it made public Tuesday.
But three sources had confirmed to The Dispatch by early last evening that the e-mails had been sent by Cicero, a lawyer with a checkered past who represented the tattoo-parlor owner, Edward Rife, in 2003 when Rife was a key witness in a murder trial.
Once Cicero's name was reported in a story on Dispatch.com last night, he issued a statement, saying he was not the source that Yahoo Sports cited in originally reporting that Tressel had prior knowledge of possible player misconduct. Cicero said he has cooperated with Ohio State and NCAA investigators but had no other comment.
The first e-mail Cicero sent, on April 2, alerted Tressel that players were selling autographed memorabilia and championship rings to Rife and that some items had been seized during a federal raid of Rife's home.
In an April 16 e-mail, Cicero shared what he described as "confidential" information. Cicero wrote that Rife had visited him the night before and told him that he had "about 15 pairs of cleats with signatures, 4-5 jerseys - all signed by players. He told me he has about nine Big Ten championship rings."
Tressel said he kept the information to himself to protect the confidentiality of the federal investigation and for the safety of his players. The decision to not inform OSU or NCAA officials led to the punishment.
The NCAA could choose to further punish Tressel and the football program. Ohio State's self-imposed penalties fall short of those faced by others who have broken the same NCAA bylaw in recent years, according to a Dispatch review of past disciplinary actions.
Since 2006, the NCAA has sanctioned 27 schools for violating bylaw 10.1, which requires coaches and others to be truthful and forthcoming about possible NCAA violations. Of the 12 coaches involved, only one kept his job. The others either resigned or were fired by their schools.
Former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien, one of his assistant coaches and former football running back Maurice Clarett each faced unethical-conduct charges by the NCAA. It cost all of them their careers at Ohio State.
A person with experience in such NCAA matters said he thinks OSU might have been too lenient.
"Just looking at it, it may seem a little light, especially in light of the fact Tressel didn't report it to the university within a reasonable period of time," said Michael Buckner, who heads a law firm that helps schools deal with the NCAA.
OSU suspended Tressel for the first two games of the 2011 season, against Akron and Toledo. He can have no contact with his team or coaches on game day, nor can he be on the premises. The $250,000 fine represents a little more than 7 percent of Tressel's $3.5 million annual salary.
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Daniel Herron, receiver DeVier Posey, offensive tackle Mike Adams and defensive end Solomon Thomas are scheduled to serve five-game suspensions to start the 2011 season for their dealings with Rife.
Tressel didn't speak with the Ohio State compliance office or his superiors about the e-mails until they were discovered in early January as officials prepared the appeal of the players' penalties. He also signed a compliance form on Sept. 13 that said he had no knowledge of possible violations.
"In those periods when he had an opportunity and a duty to disclose, he failed to do so," Buckner said. "I think the NCAA could also come back and add failure to monitor or failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. Those are program violations.
"With those three (including the bylaw 10.1 violation), you could look at the two-game suspension and the fine to be the minimum."
If the NCAA enforcement division endorses the school's findings, it would send the case to the committee on infractions, which could agree with the penalties or make them more severe. The enforcement division also could say it needs to investigate further.
Cicero's attempts to help the football program weren't his first. He represented former receiver Santonio Holmes in 2003 in a disorderly-conduct case that ultimately was dismissed.
Cicero, who enrolled at OSU after serving in the Marines, has made news as a criminal-defense lawyer.
In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended his law license for one year because of misconduct. The lawyer led others to believe he was having sex with then-Judge Deborah P. O'Neill, who had appointed Cicero to defend a client in a criminal case.
Cicero ultimately said he overstated his intimacy with the judge and that he and O'Neill did not have sex until she stepped aside from the case. O'Neill also admitted to the sexual affair.
Former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce said yesterday that Cicero was a good "team player" for him in the early 1980s and that they remain friends.
He said he believes Cicero was trying to help the Ohio State program when he sent the e-mails to Tressel.
"He's a nice guy and certainly wouldn't want to harm Ohio State in any way," he said.
Bruce also defended Tressel and said he was trying to protect the players the way former Ohio State coaches would have done.
"I wouldn't turn in players. I would try to help them, and coach (Woody) Hayes did the same thing."
Hayes, Bruce said, once refused to cooperate with the NCAA after it learned that the coach had given several players $20.
"No coach at Ohio State, and I mean none, has ever done more for the program on and off the field than coach Tressel," Bruce said.
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OT--Only 1 of 12 coaches who violated Bylaw 10.1 kept job
