In the jailhouse recordings, Clemons tells others the same things Bunge said he told her about how he got money from coaches. Reached Wednesday by phone and asked whether Bunge's allegations were indeed true, Clemons responded, "Yeah. Y'all printed it, so it must be true," and then hung up.
While the university revoked Clemons' athletic scholarship during his jail stay, he remains enrolled at the school.
Two of the people with whom he spoke the most while in jail appear to have been key to his decision to stay in Columbia and appear to have played a role in his other decisions. They are Carmento Floyd, wife of MU system President Elson Floyd, and Amy Stewart, wife of Ed Stewart, the school's associate director of athletics for administration.
Several calls the two had with Clemons--sometimes together--suggest considerable infighting and backbiting within the athletics department. Conflict between the department and the university president also were discussed.
In three consecutive phone calls made July 29 to Amy Stewart, she advised Clemons he couldn't trust assistant coach Lane Odom or the rest of the coaching staff.
"You have got to sever your ties with the basketball staff," she said. "You've got to."
Stewart told him she didn't think the coaches cared about him. "They don't give a damn about where you go to school, or your degree, or anything," she said.
Several times, Stewart gleefully said she hoped Clemons would "take down" the coaching staff. "Your (rear end) is some trouble. Whew! Shoot, taking 'em down, you are. You're gonna take 'em down, you know that, right? You know that? And I am having great pleasure."
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In another conversation, Clemons told Stewart he wasn't the only player getting money: "When I first got here ... they did everybody. I mean, they do A.J. (Arthur Johnson) and Rickey (Paulding). If they need money, they'd go to (assistant coach Tony) Harvey. He'd get it for 'em."
"They what?" Stewart responded.
"If they needed money, they'd go to Harvey. He'd get it for 'em. But it was him first, and I stopped messing with him. I stopped talking to him and ... then went to Lane (Odom)."
St Louis PD
In the recordings, Amy Stewart related a story, which she attributed to her husband, about the atmosphere at the Hearnes Center at the time.
"Ed come home, every time he come home, he be like, ‘Them crackers shaking. They going crazy. They don’t know what to do. They shaking. They can’t talk to Ricky. They’re like some crackheads running around there,’ " Amy Stewart said.
"Well, good enough for them," Carmento Floyd replied.
Columbia Daily Tribune
By Jeff Gordon Post-Dispatch Online Sports Columnist
updated: 05/30/2003 10:22 AM
Let's go ahead and make the prediction: The Missouri Tigers basketball team will finally reach the Final Four.
The long wait will finally end. Quin Snyder will accomplish what he was hired to do. He will take the Tigers to that high stage Norm Stewart couldn't quite reach.
He will finally convert his consistently outstanding recruiting into that deep NCAA Tournament run that Mizzou fans have longed for. He will arrive as a coach and the Tigers will emerge as a true national power.
The signing of 6-foot-8 power forward Linas Kleiza put the Tigers over the top. This kid is a monster, an inside-out threat who should complement veteran postman Arthur Johnson quite nicely.
St Louis PD
In fact, Martinez's roommate, Paige Laurie, recently had a sports stadium at a major university named in her honor. Laurie's parents donated money to the school and wanted it named for their daughter. Paige Laurie is a granddaughter of one of the founders of Wal-Mart. Her mother has more than $2 billion. Her father owns the St. Louis Blues hockey team.
Laurie's parents said they wanted the stadium named after her because they were proud of her.
But I don't think they knew that Martinez says she did much of Paige's schoolwork for her -- for money.
"She's always had everything done for her, I think. I mean, when she first came I taught her how to do her laundry. I did some of it for her sometimes," Martinez said.
Martinez says Laurie had more time to party and meet celebrities, because she was paid to do Laurie's work for her.
ABC
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In a similar controversy, university officials have also indicated they will remove Enron founder Ken Lay's name from an economics professorship if he is convicted in the scandal that brought down the energy giant.
Officials said that would probably require the school to return Lay's $1.1 million donation. The Lay chair in economics has never been filled.
AP