NEW YORK _ Former USC associate head coach Tony Bland pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit bribery Wednesday as part of a deal with prosecutors in the college basketball bribery and corruption investigation.
During a half-hour hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Bland admitted to receiving a $4,100 bribe in exchange for steering USC players to use a sports management company and financial advisor.
"I knew that my conduct was wrong," Bland said in a brief statement he read in court.
The sentencing guideline in the plea agreement calls for Bland to serve six to 12 months in prison, though the former coach is expected to receive probation since he doesn't have a criminal record. The deal doesn't include any cooperation requirement, but he will have to forfeit the $4,100.
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos scheduled the sentencing for April 2.
"This is a case that is a product of a very broken, antiquated system," Jeffrey Lichtman, Bland's attorney, said after the hearing. "He was looking to help the players, but the problem is the way he went about it was wrong.
"Tony is looking forward to getting on with his life. It's a tragic, tragic day."
Lichtman added: "This drove a stake through the heart of his career."
Bland, accompanied by a pair of friends and two attorneys, declined to comment.
When the hearing ended, the former coach bit his lower lip and hugged one of the friends sitting in the first row of the courtroom at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse. He shook his head, tugged on a jacket and exhaled.
Bland, 38, is the first of four assistant coaches indicted in the investigation to plead guilty.
Prosecutors accused Bland of accepting a $13,000 bribe during a July 2017 meeting in Las Vegas. They also alleged the former coach directed a combined $9,000 in payments to associates of USC player De'Anthony Melton and recruit Taeshon Cherry.
FBI agents arrested Bland in September 2017. USC placed him on administrative leave, then fired him three months later.
The Los Angeles Times first reported in November that bank records show Christian Dawkins, the would-be chief executive of the sports management company implicated in the case, deposited $8,900 in cash at a Bank of America ATM in Las Vegas the same day Bland received the alleged bribe.
The $4,100 Bland admitted taking is believed to be the difference between the $13,000 he was alleged to have accepted and the $8,900 that was deposited.
If the case had gone to trial, assistant U.S. Atty. Eli Mark told the court, prosecutors would have used audio and video recordings of the Las Vegas meeting, intercepted phone calls, testimony from USC representatives and more.
Bland had been scheduled for trial in April along with Dawkins, former Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans, former Arizona assistant Book Richardson and Adidas employee Merl Code. The four men have pleaded not guilty, though at least some are discussing plea bargains with prosecutors.
"If the NCAA is unwilling to police itself, I have respect for the Southern District of New York prosecutors for being willing to do it," Lichtman said. "This is a broken system."
