Former Kansas football coach David Beaty's lawyers are prepared to file a subpoena to ex-Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola in pursuit of documents relating to Beaty's current lawsuit against KU Athletics.
Beaty's lawyers, in a memo dated Wednesday, are requesting Gassnola's communications with KU coach Bill Self, assistant Kurtis Townsend, athletic director Jeff Long and deputy athletic director Sean Lester concerning the recent federal court case and NCAA investigation relating to KU basketball.
In addition, Beaty's counsel is asking for any agreements Gassnola made with either KU or KU Athletics _ including those that potentially reflect his status as a booster _ along with any communication between Gassnola and KU relating to the federal court case or NCAA investigation.
Gassnola was a key figure during the Adidas college basketball trial in October 2018, testifying, in part, that he paid the family of former KU player Billy Preston $89,000 and the guardian of current Jayhawks player Silvio De Sousa $2,500 for online classes. Gassnola, who was a witness for the government and later avoided prison time thanks to his cooperation, also testified he agreed to pay $20,000 to help De Sousa's guardian repay a Maryland booster who gave him $60,000, but Gassnola never paid, he said. Gassnola also testified that neither Self nor assistant Townsend knew about the payments.
Beaty's lawsuit accuses KU Athletics of concocting a way to reclassify his firing so that it could avoid paying him $3 million due under the remainder of his contract. Beaty, who was originally fired in the midst of an unsuccessful KU football season in 2018, said upon his firing that Long told the coach he would get his $3 million. Later, Beaty was informed that his payments would be withheld while the football program was being investigated for potential NCAA violations.
Last week, Beaty's case received a boost when a Kansas judge ordered KU Athletics turn over evidence of how it treated and handled coaches accused of committing NCAA violations to his legal team. Specifically, Beaty's lawyers want to know how KU Athletics treated current football coach Les Miles after a story in The Star revealed multiple analysts giving impermissible coaching to players in 2019, based on practice footage that was publicly available. It's similar to the violation that KU Athletics used as the reasoning to not pay Beaty, although KU self-reported those at Level II, a step more serious than what the school self-reported in the case of the analysts working under Miles.
Beaty's lawyers also would like to find out how KU Athletics responded when the men's basketball program was accused of major NCAA violations stemming from disclosures made during that criminal trial in 2018 involving Adidas and how KU Athletics handled former KU football coach Mark Mangino when the program was placed on probation and lost scholarships for academic fraud violations.
