MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A former high school coach testified Tuesday that he took a $150,000 payoff to send his top football player to the University of Alabama.
Lynn Lang said he received the money from Logan Young, a Memphis millionaire who is on trial on federal bribery and money laundering charges.
Lang is awaiting sentencing on a guilty plea to racketeering conspiracy. He said he took the money to convince defensive lineman Albert Means to sign with Alabama in 2000.
Young's lawyers contend Lang is lying to save himself from a long prison sentence.
Means, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, testified earlier in the day that he let Lang choose his college.
Lang said he began shopping Means around to various colleges when he realized in 1999 how many schools wanted him. He said he was referred to Young, a longtime Alabama booster, by former Crimson Tide assistant coach Ivy Williams.
Lang said he began the bidding for Means at $50,000, and Young "took to it like water."
Lang said he kept upping the price until it topped out at $150,000, which he received in a series of payments each smaller than $10,000, the threshold at which bank transactions must be reported.
Young told him that since the payments were in cash, "If anything happened, it was his word against mine," Lang testified.
Beginning his cross examination, defensive lawyer James Neal questioned Lang about denials of taking a payoff he made to federal investigators, the NCAA and officials with the Memphis school system.
Neal was to continue his questioning Wednesday.
In his testimony, Means said he depended on Lang to deal with college recruiters.
"He took care of everything else," Means said. "That's why I trusted him."
Means also said someone else, who was not identified in court, took his college entrance exam for him, and he acknowledged lying about that to a grand jury.
"I was afraid," he said.
While entering his guilty plea in 2002, Lang said he arranged for a stand-in to take Means' entrance exam.
Means, who said he had never met Young, stayed at Alabama for one football season. He transferred to the University of Memphis after reports of a payoff to Lang became public.
Alabama's recruitment of Means became part of an NCAA investigation that led to sanctions against the Crimson Tide in 2002 that deprived the team of scholarships and bowl eligibility.
Means wrapped up his eligibility to play college football last season and expects to graduate in May. He said he hopes to have a professional football career.
Lisa Mallory, a former girlfriend of Young's, told the jury he is a heavy drinker who likes to brag about Alabama football.
She said Young talked about Means, saying, "He's mine."
Under defense questioning, she said Young also made similar comments about other high school players who did not sign with Alabama but went to other colleges.
Mallory said Young often carried large amounts of cash, spent heavily at bars and restaurants and gambled with sports bookies and at casinos.
One of the charges against Young accuses him of setting up bank withdrawals to hide a crime. The defense contends he often makes bank withdrawals under $10,000.
"He spends a lot of money doesn't he?" defense lawyer Robert Hutton asked Mallory.
"A lot," she replied.
With the jury out of the courtroom, prosecutors sought permission to call a witness who would say Young boasted about sending other athletes to Alabama.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Breen said the prosecution failed to lay a legal foundation to directly link such testimony to the charges against Young. Breen denied the request but said he might reconsider it.
