Pictured is self-proclaimed escort Katina Powell, whose tell-all book titled "Breaking Cardinal Rules" unleashed a prostitution scandal at the University of Louisville and claims that team staffers paid thousands of dollars for sex for players and recruits to the NCAA Division I basketball team. The Cardinals took home the NCAA championship title in 2013 under head coach Rick Pitino, who has denied prior knowledge of the sex scandal. But on Friday the university banned post season play for 2016, which wipes out any possibilities of NCAA Tournament appearances, hoping to minimize any penalties that a pending NCAA investigation might bring. The Commonwealth Attorney's office in Louisville, Kentucky is investigating possible crimes relative to the controversy, and has begun issuing subpoenas.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 23-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) /(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). CLICK HERE TO GO TO KATHY WRAY COLEMAN AT GOOGLE PLUS WHERE SHE HAS SOME 2.5 MILLION INTERNET VIEWS alone.
Black Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman interviewed now President Barack Obama one-on-one when he was running for president. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-LOUISVILLE, Kentucky-A 2016 postseason ban against the University of Louisville men's basketball team that will keep the team, which has an 18-4 record and is in second place in the competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, out of possible play in the NCAA Tournament was imposed by the university on Friday amid a prostitution scandal.
“The University of Louisville determined that it was reasonable to conclude that violations had occurred in the men’s basketball program in the past,” said U of L President James R. Ramsey in a press release where he said also that he still has confidence in head coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich.
Head coach at the University of Louisville since 2001, Pitino, who is not new to scandals, led the Cardinals to the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.
That year the Cardinals defeated the Michigan Wolverines 82-76 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia to take home the coveted college basketball title.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth's Attorney's office and the NCAA continue to investigate claims that former U of L basketball staffer Andre McGee, allegedly without Pitino's knowledge, arranged for escorts and sex for players and recruits, allegations outlined in a scathing book titled "Breaking Cardinal Rules."
McGee is is Black, and now an assistant coach at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
The tell-all book at issue was published by Indianapolis Business Journal Book Publishing
and released last October.
It is written by Katina Powell, 43, who is Black, and says that she, her three daughters, ages 15, 17 and 19 at the time, and other escorts were paid thousands of dollars for their services between 2010-14.
In the book Powell says she was paid some $10,000 to arrange the consensual sex during the four-year period.
Pitino, 63, denies any prior knowledge of the prostitution claims, and said that he stands behind his players, and his record as a winning coach.
The NCAA could levy harsher punishment to the college team of a college town in the state of Kentucky that can brag of NCAA championship titles along with the University of Kentucky Wildcats out of Lexington, Kentucky, the state's second largest city behind Louisville, the hometown of international boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
Powell has a pending lawsuit against the university and others and says that she is prepared to go to jail if necessary, and a group of students has sued Powell saying her claims have hurt the reputation of the university and thus, their educational future, the latter suit of which some legal experts have dubbed absolutely "frivolous."
Whether Powell and the other female escorts can be criminally prosecuted while former and current team officials and U of L basketball players and recruits that participated in the alleged prostitution ring go free remains to be seen, if any charges come at all as a result of the nationally- watched fiasco.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
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