LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Former Louisville basketball staffer Andre McGee told an investigator for the school that Katina Powell was his friend, and she and her daughters sometimes hung out in Minardi Hall, but he never provided any money for stripper parties or prostitution.
And he said that basketball players knew Powell's daughters socially and would ask Powell, through McGee, to bring them to the dorm. Recruits met Powell's daughters through the players, McGee said.
McGee also said he never told coaches about Powell or her daughters visiting the dorm.
The recorded interview with U of L consultant Chuck Smrt in September 2015 is the only detailed account McGee has given about the sex scandal that ultimately cost the men’s basketball team its 2013 NCAA national championship.
It was released Tuesday in response to a WDRB News request made in 2017 under the Kentucky Open Records Act for the university police department's criminal investigation. U of L has provided documents in batches; it says it now has provided all the department's records related to the case.
The interview came about a month before Powell, the self-proclaimed madam who provided strippers and prostitutes to Cardinal players and recruits from 2010 to 2014, published her book, Breaking Cardinal Rules.
At the time, U of L had retained Smrt, an expert on NCAA compliance cases, to guide the school through the investigation.
“Did you ever arrange sex for any of the student athletes?” Smrt asked McGee, who was an assistant basketball coach at the University of Kansas City-Missouri at the time of the interview.
“Absolutely not,” McGee responded, also denying he arranged for any recruits to have sex.
McGee said some of the basketball players knew Powell’s daughters socially and he would “see the daughters, periodically, especially during the day, just walking out of the dorm.”
Powell’s daughters were not U of L students and have been accused of being paid to strip and have sex with student-athletes and players.
And McGee said recruits met Powell’s daughters when they hung out with players, though it only occurred “once or twice a year.” He said he could not remember the name of any specific recruit that met Powell or her daughters. And he told Smrt he could not remember the name of any players that knew and hung around with Powell’s daughters.
“The daughters would interact with the players and the players would be with the prospect so the daughters may interact with the prospect, yes,” McGee told Smrt.
But he told Smrt he had no knowledge of the women and athletes having any sexual relationship. And he knew of no stripping in the dorms.
"None of that happened to my knowledge," he said.
McGee denied knowing that Powell was a prostitute. He said the two were friends and had a sexual relationship.
Asked why he invited Powell and her daughters to come to the dorm when recruits were in town, McGee said “just to come see me.”
But why would she bring her daughters? Smrt continued.
“I would ask her per our players,” McGee responded. “From our players asking would Katina bring her daughters.”
McGee said while some players already knew Powell’s daughters, he also introduced them to others.
“I would introduce the daughters to an athlete they may not have known,” McGee said.
McGee also said he had not contacted Powell since he left U of L, about 18 months before the interview with Smrt on Sept. 4, 2015.
U of L police concluded that some of McGee’s statements to Smrt were “false or misleading.” For example, McGee wired Powell $200 from Kansas City in July 2014, when he allegedly arranged for a prostitute to have sex with a recruit.
And phone records showed he talked with Powell after leaving Louisville, including numerous times during the July between July 22 and July 26, 2014, when recruit Antonio Blakeney and his guardian were in town.
A Jefferson County grand jury declined to indict Powell or McGee on criminal charges in 2017, but McGee has not spoken publicly about the scandal, at least in part, because there is no statute of limitations on charging someone with a felony in Kentucky.
Also in the records released Tuesday was a summary of an interview with former Louisville assistant basketball coach Mike Balado, who was asked about texts he sent to McGee that had been deleted from his phone in July 2014.
Balado told police he didn’t remember deleting the texts or what they were about, according to the summary. He denied knowing anything about the sex scandal.
Balado, who was the lead recruiter for Blakeney, spoke by phone or texted McGee several times over that same five-day period in July 2014. Powell told police she talked on the phone once with a “Coach Mike,” according to a summary on an interview she had with Smrt.
When asked about his conversations with McGee, Balado told police they spoke about basketball, not about arranging adult entertainment for recruits or players.
U of L police focused a great deal on Balado as part of the department’s investigation into alleged criminal activity by McGee and Powell. Balado was never charged.
U of L has maintained that McGee was the only university employee involved in a sex scandal and Balado, now the head coach at Arkansas State University, has told WDRB earlier this year that he “absolutely” did not have conversations with McGee about any wrongdoing.
“I was investigated thoroughly. I had nothing to do with anything that went on,” he said. “And that’s all I have to say.”
The records released Tuesday also include a summary of a police interview with former U of L program assistant Brandon Williams. Williams spoke with McGee 14 times on July 22, 2014, according to documents released by police.
Williams matched the description of a man Powell said gave her $200 before she took her daughter to meet Blakeney, the recruit who was visiting Louisville, according to the NCAA infractions committee. Powell was not able to identify the man who gave her the money after NCAA investigators showed her photos of several men. But, in response to investigators’ questions, she said Williams most resembled the man.
A security report entry from that day shows Williams entered and exited the Minardi Hall basketball dorm. He was questioned about this and a series of texts with Balado about his checking account.
While he denied any involvement in the scandal, U of L police concluded his statement was “inconsistent with specific and believable statements” by Powell. And phone records show Williams and Balado were in communication “during the time in question,” according to the investigative conclusion. Williams has not been charged with any crime.
U of L police determined that Powell and McGee operated a “criminal syndicate” on campus for four years and should be charged with multiple felony crimes, according to a summary of the investigation released earlier this year.
“We advocate the pursuit of felony indictments for the identified suspects for the charges noted as soon as possible” in connection with the sex scandal, three U of L police detectives wrote in a memo to Assistant Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Foster on May 27, 2016.
Prosecutors determined there was not enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Then-Louisville Coach Rick Pitino was fired last October after U of L was linked to an ongoing federal investigation into college basketball recruiting.
Copyright 2018 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
