More Varsity Blues

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Just as I predicted some months ago in a CrisisBlog (“Aunt Becky vs. Tommy Trojan”), the Los Angeles Times now reports the strategy of the lawyers representing the dozen or so parents still pleading not guilty in the Academic Cheating Scandal known as Varsity Blues:

“Lawyers for parents whose children were admitted to USC through alleged fraud and bribery are now trying to drag the school into the fray, seeking — among other things — sensitive internal documents that they believe will shed light on how the school has courted wealthy donors and the role donations play in admissions.” *

This is the very last thing USC — or any other school — wants. Crafty attorneys representing those parents, whose ranks include actress Lori Loughlin (better known as Aunt Becky on the TV show “Full House”), want to expose what they will claim is the rampant hypocrisy that exists in the college admissions roulette wheel. Except the defense lawyers will argue that where the ball drops on a roulette wheel is presumably random, the admissions wheel is decidedly rigged. One of their arguments will go like this: What is the difference between a wealthy donor overtly ponying up big bucks for, say, a new classroom building on campus — (Oh! Surprise, Surprise! That donor’s kid got admitted!) — and another parent making an obscenely large sub rosa cash donation to some athletic coach for his or her “discretionary use” — (What? Another admission from that deep pocket’s family? What a coincidence!)

One father, accused of paying $250,000 to try to get his daughter into USC, tried to subpoena the school for fundraising and admissions records. According to the L.A. Times, he wanted to see “a database of donors and the percentage of applicants admitted within a year of their families donating $50,000 or more.” USC immediately tried to quash the subpoena, but the judge has yet to rule. I predict it won’t end well for the school. And if those secret records of massive check writing are laid bare for all to see, I predict it will have a chilling effect on future school donations. While some donors are proud to publicize the size of their largesse, many more are not as willing to be exposed.

The parents are agressively going after the school’s fundraising records for obvious reasons. But the school’s basic cry that it was a victim of mastermind Rick Singer’s nefarious schemes falls on somehat shaky ground when lawyers for some of the parents will produce checks that Singer had them make out directly to USC. If the money went into USC bank accounts, the argument that some of the parents have been making that they thought eveything was open and aboveboard could gain traction with a sympathetic jury. Nevertheless, it was reported in the media recently that Lori Loughlin has hired a prison consultant to help prepare her for what to expect and how to act in prison (prison etiquette, thank you very much), should it come to that.

Of course, money aside, some of those defendant parents will still have to explain the phony athletic qualifications and photo-shopped pictures of their kids as star “water polo players” and rowing team “crew stars” and “soccer phenoms,” etc. But that could be a minor problem for another day.

For its part, USC, I believe, would dearly love to drop these cases entirely and just walk away. Unfortunately, while the school is deeply mired in the crisis, it has little control over the disposition of the criminal cases. That is because government prosecutors are in the driver’s seat, not the school. These are not civil cases; those wealthy parents are being prosecuted for alleged criminal acts by the federal government, not the schools. I have represented crisis clients over the years where government lawyers were in charge of certain sensitive litigation in criminal cases and those civil servants generally couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what was best for my clients. The government attorneys were single-mindedly focused on what was best for their case, and their case alone.

The schools are not totally without viable options, though, but the longer they delay the harder it will be for them to get any modicum of control over the situation. For one thing, the college admissions process needs to be revamped and the first school to publicly announce how it intends to level the playing field will have a leg up in the court of public opinion.

Given that so many of the defendants are accused of bribing USC personnel, it would seem that USC has the most to gain for being publicly proactive. Thus far the school has curiously remained mute. It’s time for Tommy Trojan to use his sword to cut out the hypocrisy before the defense attorneys leave little left to cleave.

This is a crisis for USC of both reality and perception. And that only compounds the school’s problems.