NCAA transcripts reveal inconsistent testimony, pattern of untruths

DISCUSS: Egg Bowl rivalry playing out on multiple fronts | Ballad of Leo Lewis

In his third interview with NCAA investigators, Leo Lewis admitted to taking $11,000 from Mississippi State.

The interview in which Lewis made that admission included Lewis waffling on details and a one-minute break requested by NCAA investigator Mike Sheridan.

In documents obtained by RebelGrove.com that include transcripts of Lewis’ third interview with the NCAA, Sheridan asks Lewis if he took anything beyond $11,000 from Mississippi State. Lewis said he did not. Asked when the first time he remembered getting money from anyone associated with Mississippi State, Lewis said he was “not sure when it was. I came to — I went to Mississippi State one day.”

Sheridan asked Lewis if that day was before National Signing Day. Lewis answered in the affirmative. At that point, Sheridan points out for the record that the time of day is 5:47 p.m.

“I’m going to go off the record so I can talk with (fellow investigator) Steph (Hannah) for a second,” Sheridan said, according to transcripts. “We’re back on with Leo at 5:48. Leo, of the $11,000 that you said you got from (redacted) was that, was that $11,000 all given to you on or before signing day 2015 or did some of it come after signing day?”

Lewis answered that it came on signing day. Sheridan then asks again if all the money came on signing day.

“$10,000 of it came on signing day and I received $1,000 way like somewhere in 2015, I mean 2014,” Lewis said.

Asked what month or season that $1,000 payment occurred, Lewis said he couldn’t remember.

The conversation is just one example of a pattern that appears to be established in transcripts obtained by RebelGrove.com — inconsistent testimony, witnesses not confident with their testimony and coached witnesses who fail to recall stories they’ve rehearsed. Also included in the documents obtained by RebelGrove.com are allegations that people at Mississippi State coached witnesses to lie in their interviews with the NCAA.

That likely provides no comfort for Ole Miss as it prepares for its Sept. 11 meeting in front of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions (COI) in Covington, Kentucky. As SBNation.com's Steven Godfrey wrote in his story, “The Ballad of Leo Lewis,” Friday, “the NCAA isn’t a court of law. The two sides don’t have subpoena power, and the enforcement staff is within the guidelines of its bylaws to withhold any information from another investigation into another member institution, even if evidence gathered there could impact a trial or another active investigation.”

One of the Level I allegations filed against Ole Miss in February accused Ole Miss booster Rebel Rags of providing improper benefits in the form of clothing to prospective student-athletes, including Lewis and fellow Mississippi State teammate Kobe Jones.

Jones told the NCAA he visited Rebel Rags on four occasions — three times while at Ole Miss on an unofficial visit and once during his official visit. Jones claimed he received nearly $500 worth of merchandise on each visit.

However, Starkville assistant coach Randy Carlisle told Sheridan Jones lied in his interviews with the NCAA. Carlisle said he was with Jones on all of his visits to Oxford and never saw Jones leave Rebel Rags with gear other than a red t-shirt and a quarter-zip, long-sleeve pullover Carlisle purchased for the then-Starkville defensive lineman. Carlisle told the NCAA Jones brought a small drawstring bag with him on all his visits to Oxford — a bag large enough to hold headphones, a phone charger, shoes and a change of clothes.

Sheridan, during an interview with Carlisle, asked the coach if he believed Jones was telling the truth.

Sheridan: “If he had said to you, coach, I got this when I went on a visit to Oxford from Rebel Rags, would you strike — would that strike you as an honest statement from him, or would that strike you as a dishonest statement?”

Carlisle: “A dishonest statement.”

Lewis’ testimony regarding Rebel Rags is also vague. Lewis told the NCAA he got “at least $400 worth of stuff” from the store, though he couldn’t tell investigators how he got to the establishment or the date of his visit. However, Lewis recalled for investigators that “there was this guy and I want to say they gave me like this gift card, which I seen it but I never actually touched it. So he had it already and once I got my gear, they just, you know, they handled it how they handled it.”

In a subsequent interview, Lewis amended his testimony, saying he possessed the gift card with $400 credit and did not include the presence of the unidentified man from the earlier interview. Asked by Sheridan if he remembered details of the transaction at Rebel Rags, Lewis said, “No, sir. I just know I gave ‘em the card. Uh, she took the hangers off and took the, uh, the clip off and — “

Sheridan: “The clip off, what’d you mean?

Lewis: “Like you know, the thing that’s still attached to the clothes with ink in it.”

Sheridan: “So you can’t steal it?”

Lewis: “Yeah, so took those off and, uh, that was it.”

Rebel Rags, in a lawsuit filed against Lewis, Jones and others, said it has no records of gift card usage that could corroborate Lewis’ account. Further, the store does not utilize security tags.

Ole Miss safety Armani Linton and Lewis became friends during the recruiting process. Linton was in Starkville for Mississippi State’s spring game in April 2016. After that game, Linton was alone with Lewis. Linton told Sheridan Lewis told him, “Coach (Dan) Mullen told me that he wanted to put a — put together a plan to protect me and make sure that nothing goes wrong with me as far as just like NCAA violations go.”

Later, Linton told Sheridan, according to documents obtained by RebelGrove.com, that Lewis told Linton that Mullen had called him into his office to discuss the situation.

“And he was like, what do I need to say to protect you from anything that can, potentially like come up about you, you know, basically, so I can — basically, he wanted to be a puppet for him, saying like — saying things that he need to say to keep them from going under and keeping him from going under, as far as keeping Leo from going under,” Linton told Sheridan, when asked again to recount his conversation with Lewis.

Ole Miss’ hearing in front of the COI is expected to last up to three days. Lewis, who has limited immunity in the case, has been requested to personally appear. A ruling from the COI, which will include sanctions against the school and individuals involved in the case, could come as soon as 6-8 weeks following the hearing.