1
You know, a question that a
man always has to ask himself
when he goes through something
like I went through:
"Are you in a better spot
than you were before?"
"Was it worth it?"
And the answer to me is "yes"
and the sooner a man gets
to leading a life
of transparency,
the better off he is and you do
that by making things simple.
But, what we do because of sin,
things get complicated.
I mean, every day, the devil
would beat me up.
Every single day, the devil
would beat me up
and remind me of what
a bad person I was.
And what that does, that
keeps harboring, you know,
the crime and keeps burying you.
And what you then-- you can't
be of any use to anybody.
Of course, I shouldn't
be forgiven.
dramatic solemn music
[Matt Sayman] For all of it to
fall apart and then in such a
short span, for it to almost
like it didn't happen.
Like right now,
you go down there,
there's not one trace of that.
[Julie Hays] Scandal of the
summer of 2003 has been
wiped from the pages of history.
low solemn music
Our investigation into this
tragedy will continue
to move forward
and I appreciate
the assistance of all the
agencies that helped to bring
this investigation
to this point.
Thank you all very
much for your time.
[Hays] It's one of those
things people around here
do not--
do not talk about.
low solemn music
[John Segrest] Waco and Baylor
are very closely associated
because Baylor is one of the
largest employers in the county
and that's always been the case.
[Danny Robbins] Baylor grads
are many of the lawyers,
judges, business people.
[Bob Fuller]
Baylor University, you know,
really plays a big part in
what goes on in Waco.
The 2002-2003 season
of my junior year,
I ended up being a flop.
At that time, it was like,
Baylor basketball was sort of
just there, nobody paid
much attention to it at all.
You really didn't think
much else about it,
at least I didn't.
I would wonder, "Why are you
guys going to these games?
Why are you sitting
in those chairs?"
I mean, it was losing season
after losing season,
across the board
on so many sports.
When Dave Bliss was hired,
it had actually been 11 seasons
since Baylor basketball had seen
any play in post conference.
Basketball coaches
have a shelf life
and coaches are not
normal human beings.
They're Type A
performance-driven people
that work insatiably to try
to elevate the status
of their school.
[Sayman] Coach Bliss was known
for turning programs around.
He had basically done it
his entire career.
[Bliss] I was lucky enough
to coach at four
tremendous schools,
five years in Oklahoma
was wonderful...
[Announcer] Coach Dave Bliss.
[Bliss] had eight years at SMU
and then 11 at New Mexico.
He is a marketing genius.
He makes a lot of money.
He knows how to
generate revenue.
He knows how to raise money
from donors
and he is very,
very intelligent.
[Bliss] Twenty-five years that
I was in coaching,
I really envisioned ending
my coaching career
at a Christian school.
I was a Baptist by faith.
It seemed like a
perfect place to go.
Dave Bliss' base salary
went from about
$300,000 a year to $600,000.
And when they hired him,
they made a big deal about it.
It was very much a coronation
when they brought him in.
[Sayman] It's not every day
you get to play for a coach
in college that has, at that
time, around 400 wins.
It wasn't hard to understand
that you were playing for a
future Hall of Fame coach.
[Robbins] The fact that Baylor
is Baylor and it's the world's
largest Baptist institution
and it's had conservative rules
over the years, does not apply
to the athletic program.
The athletic program's a
big-time athletic program,
where winning is paramount.
[Sayman] The more wins, the
more money the university gets.
The more wins, the more
money the coach gets.
The more wins, we get to stay.
It was Baylor first and
it was us second.
We were ultra-competitive,
but our record didn't show it
and our wins didn't show it.
[Bliss] Things didn't come
as easily as they did
in other places because the
competition was greater.
What the SEC is for football,
the Big 12 is for basketball.
The competition, it's
definitely NBA level
without question,
night in and night out.
[crowd cheering]
[Bliss] Pat Dennehy was a
terrific player in University of
New Mexico and he was 6'9",
a very agile player.
I saw a wonderful young man
and was excited about
him coming to Baylor.
He looked like he had all the
attributes that might allow him
to be an NBA player.
Patrick was probably 13,
about 13 years old
before he picked up
his first basketball.
He just learned like crazy
and he became a
great player overnight.
It came easy to him
like everything else.
[Okopnyi] First time
I ever met Patrick,
was a freshman in high school
in San Jose.
I looked up to him,
figuratively and literally.
He was the friendliest guy
I ever met.
He was a funny guy
and he knew that.
He was a brother to me.
He felt a need to protect the
people he cared about... a lot.
[Wynn] Everywhere he went,
I went.
Patrick and I used to go all
over town, to his high school
so he could practice,
go out to eat, go to movies.
He was always kind-hearted
and he would bend over
backwards for people.
He loved hanging out with his
friends, he loved to joke.
He loved to do stuff
to make you laugh too.
He's kind of a clown,
in a way, off the court.
[Okopnyi] He knew who he was,
he was going to be
a basketball star.
I remember Patrick telling
me that with his help,
Baylor would be the
Big 12 champion.
At the time, I think it was
hard to get recruits to Baylor.
[Marlowe] Dave Bliss must have
known something about recruiting
because I mean, he got
Patrick really excited
about going to Baylor.
He had Patrick really excited
about being one of their
scholarship athletes.
They have a chance to get
a free education,
get it now.
He had to go somewhere,
where they could offer him
a full athletic scholarship.
Dave Bliss, he made it clear to
Patrick that if he came
out to Baylor, everything would
be great, everything was
going to be wonderful.
You're going to be my star.
He had, all of a sudden,
a place to live and he didn't
have to worry about making rent.
He didn't have to worry about,
"Oh my gosh, am I going
to get evicted or not."
The bills were paid.
He didn't have to worry about
his electricity being shut off.
And he didn't have to worry
about driving around in a car
and wondering if it's going
to break down in the
middle of the road.
He said Dave Bliss had helped
him get a vehicle and I said,
"What did he get?"
And he told me a Chevy Tahoe.
And he loved it.
He really did love it.
[Brian] He talked about how he
was going to be a professional
basketball player, pay for
Wynn's college education,
buy his mom a house.
Well, for the first time
on campus,
Baylor basketball
meant something.
We all thought that the
2003-2004 season was the year,
the year it was going to happen.
We just had a huge group
of players come in.
We had R.T. Guinn, Ellis Kidd,
Patrick Dennehy has a red shirt
and then Carlton Dotson,
all of those players
make us a better team.
Carlton Dotson had not signed
a scholarship yet.
I went up and looked at him and
Carlton was very, very skilled,
offensively, somebody I
thought would be good
for part-time minutes.
[Dolcin] Yeah, Hurlock, it's
a rough little town, man.
Small town, dirt roads,
you know.
So, it's just not a
good place to live
and if you do live there,
you want out of Hurlock.
You know, nobody wants to stay.
The little area of Hurlock,
not much happening up there.
The four years that I had
Carlton, we won 85 games
and we won more basketball games
than had ever been won
at North Dorchester.
Carlton was the leader
of the team.
He was basically our
LeBron James.
He knew his talent was
going to take him places.
Everybody knew they was going
to see Carlton on TV one day.
Everybody knew Carlton
was going to make it.
In 1999, North Dorchester went
to the State Championship game
and brought home the
first State Championship
that North Dorchester ever had.
It was a big deal
for our community.
I'll never forget coming
through town that night,
we were escorted in with
the Hurlock police
and Sheriff department,
sirens going,
people out on their
front porches,
waving to us and stuff.
It really did something
for the kids.
It really did.
Carlton had a good
personality.
He was friendly to be around.
He wasn't arrogant at
all about his abilities.
There are some kids that
don't let you in, you know,
but he did and I got
bonded with him.
He spent the night at my house,
you know, eat at my house,
mess around with my kids.
I would be proud if he
married my daughter.
[Marlowe] Carlton was the
closest to Patrick at Baylor.
You know, he started to
become friends with Carlton
pretty quickly.
They kind of clowned around.
They seemed like good buddies.
Patrick lived in
student housing.
Four people could
live to an apartment.
Dottie was his roommate
at the time.
He mentioned Dottie
being a cool guy.
Carlton always talked to me,
when he was around,
about this guy named Patrick.
They was friends
and he talked so well about him.
[Marlowe] They were goofballs
and they seemed to have
a good relationship.
I was with Northeastern
Oklahoma.
Coach came to me and after
the game, he was like,
"Man, great game.
We need you at
Baylor University.
We want you."
Okay, cool.
That's it, that's all
I needed to hear.
[Abar] Harvey was typical
junior college transfer.
I would say that Harvey Thomas
had maybe more potential
than Patrick, but I still would
give the edge to Patrick.
[Thomas] They flew me
down to Waco.
They assigned Dennehy
to be my chaperone.
Pat picked me up
from the airport.
First thing he asked me was
like, "Hey, man, you smoke?"
I say, "Yes, of course," and
right then and there I said,
"Hey, we going to be just fine.
We're going to-- you know,
we're going to get along well."
He told me my apartment would
be ready in three to four days,
but you can just stay with Pat
until your apartment is ready.
I'm cool.
I'm cool with that.
I'm sleeping on the couch
and Dotson had a room,
I think in the back, wherever,
but once I got there,
I ended up calling my cousin,
Larry Johnson.
I called him and told him,
"Hey man, I just got to school.
Get on a Greyhound
and come on down."
[Abar] Larry was kind of
always around.
He's basically
Harvey's sidekick.
He's basically his friend,
he's hanging out,
he's getting to see the life
that Harvey is about to live.
He's just a friend that,
you know, a hanger-on.
The initial job that I was
offered at Baylor University
was the Director of
Basketball Operations.
Coaching at Baylor was moving up
to the big leagues for me.
I went to school there
and coaching the Big 12
was something I did not
want to miss.
I accepted that position,
officially,
June first of 2003.
And then, it go... you know,
things went crazy.
low dramatic music
Patrick was always very calm,
cool and collected,
but he called me frantic.
I had never heard him like this.
I had never heard him
this scared of anything.
Something's up.
I'm like, "What?"
And he's like,
"I don't know what to do."
He's like, "I can't
say over the phone."
Which struck me as odd,
but... okay.
And he told me he was
being threatened.
And he said, "Well Dottie's
being threatened too
and I've got his back."
Which made me think that
it was directed at Dotson.
And I said, "From what?"
He said, "I can't say."
And he's like, "I need help."
He started to tell me
that he was not certain
about this player that
Dave Bliss had recruited
and brought in.
This Harvey Thomas.
Well, I told him that
he definitely needed
to reach out for help.
I said "Look, you need
to talk to your coaches."
I mean, that's the whole
thing that these coaches say.
"Oh, we're here for you,
we're here to take care of you."
And I mean, they really do keep
very close tabs on these guys.
He did come to the coaches
to talk about it.
He did tell me that he was
scared and that there were
weird things going on
and I shouldn't...
things that if I knew,
I would be afraid as well.
[Marlowe] He didn't feel safe
and he and Carlton felt
that the best move for them
was to go buy guns.
To my knowledge, Patrick
had never used guns,
never even held one
that I knew of.
[Marlowe] You know, it went
from a, "We feel like we need
to buy guns," to, "Well, we have
guns and we're going out
and practicing shooting."
[Turk] Me and Patrick were
roommates for at least a year.
I do not believe there were
ever any guns in the apartment
before Harvey.
There previously hadn't been
a lot of guns around.
I have no experience with guns,
I didn't grow up hunting,
never been around guns, so it
was kind of a big deal to me
to suddenly see all these
guns around.
I remember, you know, coming
home from work and my door
was deadbolted and, you know,
when I knocked on the door,
they opened it and they
were holding a rifle.
There was just always this
vague, kind of description.
Like, "Hey, don't let Harvey in,
don't answer the door.
Don't let people in unless we're
here, period, no matter what."
There was an evening where
I was at home alone
and someone knocked on my door.
I came to the door to
answer the door.
I looked through the peephole.
There was someone at my door.
He was an African American,
probably 6'5" or taller
and he had what looked like
a handgun, you know,
holding it in a position
that I could see it.
It wasn't concealed, it was
clearly a threatening move.
I assumed it was Harvey.
[Okopnyi] And then a few days
later, Patrick said he was
coming to my house with Carlton.
I said, "Stay with me, we'll
hang out for my birthday
and then we'll go back.
I'll go with you,
we'll go to the police."
And then he said, "Hold on
a second," and he said,
"Hey, hey Carlton, are we
going to head down?"
And I heard Carlton
in the background.
I didn't really hear
audibly what he said.
He said, "Yeah, yeah,
we're on our way.
We're heading out there soon."
So, my primary function
was to make sure
that the players got where
they needed to be,
when they needed to be there.
And I would physically go to
each one of their classes
and make sure that they were
sitting in that chair.
So, I get to have a little
different relationship
with the players and it enabled
me to get a little closer
to some of them.
Friday the 13th, we realized
that Patrick was not in class,
but that he might have cut class
and took an early weekend.
Father's Day I didn't
get a call from Patrick
and if he didn't call,
there was always a card
for special occasions.
So, I just figured, "Okay, well,
maybe he'll call me Monday,"
and Monday came and went and
there was no phone call.
Monday, we grew
concerned and Tuesday,
we were on alert.
I was nervous and I couldn't
get a hold of him
and I called Carlton.
"Jess, I don't know
where Patrick is.
We were scared and we were
sleeping with the doors
propped closed and I just
took off to Maryland,
so I'm home and I don't
know where Patrick is.
He was going to stay."
And I had actually called
Carlton and Carlton said,
"Well, Mr. Brabazon,
I'm back in Maryland
and I had to get out of there.
Things were crazy at Baylor.
If I could talk
to you in person,
I'd tell you what was going on."
My next call was to Bliss.
"Have you seen Patrick?
I haven't talked to him,
no one knows where he's at."
Bliss just acted like,
you know, he's around.
He said, "Well, he's
probably with his friends."
[Bliss] I was obviously on
the hunt for finding out where
Patrick was, but since it was
summer and he was good friends
with Carlton, I thought the
two of them might have
gone someplace and just
not let anybody know.
I remember going by
Patrick's house,
looking for his vehicle
over the weekend.
I remember knocking on his door
the weekend he went missing.
And nobody seemed to
know where he was.
By then, I was really
concerned.
I drove to Baylor with a friend.
I think I ran into the
property manager
and I had her open up
the apartment.
Kind of smelled a little bit.
There were the two baby
pitbulls, so I fed them.
Then I went into his room.
On the bed was an open suitcase
that was half packed,
like he was packing
for a few days.
And by my assumption, he was
packing to come down and see me.
So, I left him a note.
I said, "Hey, we came down.
I took the dogs."
It struck me as really odd
that he was half packed
and he was nowhere to be found.
[Brian] I had called the Waco
police and so that's when
they decided to open up a
missing person's report.
[Fuller] I was working at the
Waco Police Department.
I was assigned to the
Special Crimes Unit.
My job was to investigate
major crimes against persons.
On June 23rd in 2003,
I did have the opportunity
to meet with Coach Bliss.
The coaches wanted to sit in,
in my interviews with the
players and I didn't want
the coaches to influence
what the players would tell me.
I found out that Patrick Dennehy
and Harvey Thomas
and another young man from
Baylor were all roommates.
Carlton Dotson was also staying
there during that time.
And some money came up
missing and they were
highly upset about it.
They felt that Harvey Thomas
may have been the one
who took the money.
Carlton and Patrick came into
the office and said that Harvey
and Larry had threatened
them with a gun.
low dramatic music
And then, Carlton or Patrick
had made a gun signal,
like he had put the gun
to his head.
low dramatic music
[Fuller] They went to
Coach Belcher about that
and they asked advice on
what they should do,
whether they should report
the theft or the money
to the police.
And of course, you know,
with any program,
you want to keep
things in-house.
So, they said, "No, don't
go to the police.
We don't need the attention.
We'll just handle it in-house."
Coach Ash told me about
Harvey Thomas and the fact
that he was making threats and
had taken steps to talk
to Harvey Thomas about this.
I asked Coach Bliss, you know,
was there any threats being made
and he wasn't aware of them.
We tried to keep the information
as quiet as possible
because we didn't want others
going out and trying to
question people and influence
what they had to say.
low dramatic music
[Hays] We, you know, through
the grapevine had heard that
there was a Baylor basketball
player that was missing.
I think everyone's a little
skeptical and they're thinking,
"Maybe it's nothing," because
there certainly was no panic.
I mean, I think we were
probably just debating
do we even cover it.
It's like he disappeared
off the face of the earth
and no one knew where he was.
We went on national TV to let
everybody know we were looking
for Patrick Dennehy and we
told them our situation
and what was going on.
I haven't been told
anything concrete by the
Waco Police Department.
I felt that Patrick
felt paranoid
when I had talked to him.
Threats about what, Daniel?
Paranoid about what?
He was paranoid because
of one player,
new recruit by the name
of Harvey Thomas,
and other individuals
making threats.
[reporter] Baylor's basketball
coach says he doesn't
know of any problems between
Dennehy and his teammates.
Harvey Thomas is a solid
member of our basketball team.
The coaches came to me
and asked me,
"Did you threaten them or did
you have any problems like?"
"No, coach.
I don't have no problems
with anyone."
[Director Kondelis, off camera]
Bliss asked me and Belcher,
Rodney Belcher asked me
the same thing.
[Kondelis]
Yeah, that's bogus.
I don't know what that is.
[reporter] Were you aware of
any threats on either player?
You know, this is again,
back to that area that we
had intense conversations and
all during the period when
supposedly the alleged
threats would have been made.
We nowhere heard a threat
or any sign of physical violence
or anything along the line,
nothing was ever communicated.
Let me explain
something to you.
Nothing, there is nothing
that happens without the
Head Coach's knowledge, ever .
It doesn't happen.
So, those accusations about
threatening, stealing,
pulling the gun out,
is 100% bullshit.
Players and coaches have
talked to the investigators
and we've been eager to help
in any way we can.
There was a lot of concern
because of all the rumors
that were circulating.
[Fuller] The fact that Patrick
was a basketball player
at Baylor University did
bring a lot of pressure
and there's going to be
people in higher places
wanting answers and
wanting them now.
There were satellite
trucks everywhere.
People trying to get
stories everywhere,
phone calls to the
police department.
Trying to get to me to find
out information
and trying to get some story
about what happened
and be the first to do it.
A lot of people that we
talked to, they said
Carlton and Patrick would
go out shooting.
With that, we started
doing some searches.
[reporter] Police helicopters
have been searching
remote areas around Waco.
[reporter] Right now, the
police are kind of
at a standstill.
They're waiting for more
tips to help them out.
It was a big story for us.
Three of us were
immediately dispatched.
We were all over it, regardless
of what else was going on.
It's just one of those
stories that is going to be
compelling no matter what.
[reporter] We've had a long
real strange week out here
and not a lot of questions
have been answered.
In fact, a lot more questions
are out there now
than there were on Monday.
low dramatic music
[reporter] Dennehy's SUV,
without any license plates
was found 1,000 miles away at
this shopping mall in Virginia--
no sign of the
basketball player.
[reporter] Police in Waco,
Texas fear the worst
and think that some of
Dennehy's teammates
might know something
about it.
[Fuller] After they found the
vehicle, they assigned
Clay Perry to go with me to
Virginia Beach.
Well, apparently, they deemed
it necessary to bring
the County in, in case he was
found out in the county,
then it would be in
my jurisdiction
or our jurisdiction at
the Sheriff's office.
[Fuller] So, we flew into
Virginia Beach and what we found
when we processed his car is,
the car was clean.
There were absolutely no
fingerprints on that vehicle
whatsoever.
We knew where Mr. Dotson
lived and it was
close to that location.
And we thought, "Well, since
we're going to be that close,
why waste the trip?"
We can try to set up interviews
with Carlton Dotson.
[Perry] But, once we had
finished what we were tasked
to do in Virginia Beach,
we went to Seaford, Delaware
Police Department and were
met there and greeted by
an investigation division,
who at that point,
took us to Carlton Dotson.
Where we identified ourselves
to him, he agreed to
go with us to Seaford, Delaware
and be interviewed.
[Fuller] Any interview is
90% listening and 10% talking.
I let Carlton talk,
but the more he talked,
the more relaxed he seemed.
He didn't really want to talk
about Patrick as much
as he did about drug use
at Baylor University.
[Dotson]
[Dotson]
[Fuller] I did not believe
that that was the main point
because every time I started
talking to Carlton
about Patrick,
he'd kind of get tense.
[Dotson]
[Dotson coughs]
At points during the interview,
Detective Fuller
would leave the room,
which is a common thing
for us to do.
I was outside of the interview
room monitoring it on a TV
and Dotson would mumble things.
[inaudible mumbling]
[Fuller] OK, um...
At one point during
the interview,
I was asking Carlton about
Patrick's, his personality.
[Dotson]
He said, "was"
instead of "is."
[Dotson]
He slipped up, but he caught
himself and said "is,"
you know, right away.
Why would you say was , if you
didn't already know what
the situation was with Patrick
and his current condition?
[Fuller interviewing Dotson]
[Dotson]
[Fuller]
[Dotson]
[Perry] We then took him
back to the house that
we'd gotten him from.
[Fuller] When we arrived at
his grandmother's house,
the only thing that kept popping
in my mind is this old movie
that I'd seen years ago.
And it had a song in it and
just those words kept
coming back in my mind.
Put my hand down, just
shake Carlton's hand.
"You know, no matter what the
State of Texas does,
no matter what Waco PD does,
you just need to remember
God's going to get
you for that."
God's gonna getcha for that
God's gonna getcha for that
His eyes got big around
as saucers.
Carlton's body language,
his facial expression,
all of that changed like,
"Who brought Him into this?"
He never looked back at me.
["God's Gonna Get'cha"]
God's gonna getcha for that
[reporter] Carlton Dotson,
the Baylor basketball player
and Dennehy roommate is back
in his Maryland hometown
having hired a lawyer,
but still regarded
only as a person of interest
to Waco police.
[Abar] When they made that
announcement,
it was like a gut punch
for the entire program.
Patrick had never mentioned
anything negative
about Carlton to me directly.
He never insinuated that
anything was wrong
in their friendship.
It just did not
make sense to me.
They seemed two peas in a pod.
I mean, like they were best
friends, so I would have
never thought that, you know,
Carlton would have gotten in
and done something.
I would have thought the
world did something
and they weren't able
to stop it.
The story was so bizarre,
especially coming
from members of the
Baylor basketball team.
Anybody that's played sports
knows that when your teammates
become your family and this
is an even stronger bond
because they're living
under one roof.
Nothing was adding up.
low dramatic music
[Abar] Coach Bliss had come
over to my office and told me
that the police officer wanted
to speak to me and that I needed
to head over to his office.
I meet Bob Fuller, the
detective, and he tells me
that he's the guy investigating
Patrick's disappearance.
And I immediately ask Coach
and the detective,
"Do I need a lawyer?"
And Coach replies to me, "Not if
you didn't do anything wrong."
Essentially, what I was asked by
Bob Fuller on that day was,
"Was I distributing drugs
via the team?"
That was a very frightening
question to me.
Am I distributing drugs
through our team?
I'd been there for 12 days.
All of that is very shocking
to me and it comes out of
left field and a few days later,
there is another question.
And that question is,
"Did I threaten Patrick or
did I threaten Carlton?"
And, "Would I take a
lie detector test,
attesting to those things?"
[Fuller] I was very pleased
with the outcome.
The polygraph test would just
eliminate him of any wrongdoing
whatsoever.
And I have no doubt in my mind,
those accusations against
the selling of drugs to the
basketball player
is totally a farce.
[Robbins] I wrote a story
about a small junior college
in Texas almost a year earlier
and I'd interviewed many
ex-coaches and Abar was one
of them and he said he was
about to go back to work in Waco
at McLennan Community College
and months later, when Patrick
went missing and Dotson
was considered a person of
interest and I was put
on the story with some
of my colleagues,
I thought about Abar.
I thought maybe he knew these
guys, maybe he knew something
because I didn't know
who these players were,
maybe he knew something.
So, I called him up and the
first words out of his mouth
were, "Do you know
where I work now?"
And I said, "No, I don't."
He says, "I'm at Baylor."
And one of the first things
I did when I got to Waco
was meet with Abar in
the parking lot at
McLennan Community College
and right away,
I could see he was scared,
distracted,
things were going on with him
and that was in mid-June.
And this was his dream job.
He went to Baylor.
Suddenly, he's now on the
coaching staff at Baylor,
the school he loved and
look what's going on.
And early on, you could tell
he felt there was some
manipulation of the facts
that wasn't on the up and up
and he was concerned about it.
[Dan Rather] Baylor University
in Waco, Texas is coping with
having to defend the reputation
of its basketball program
and rightly or wrongly, in some
ways, the university itself.
I'm looking for Patrick.
I'm looking for every
possible avenue.
I just felt that we needed
more authorities involved
in Patrick's investigation and
that's the point where I took
the initiative to self-report
my own NCAA violations
and also report Patrick's
because as I understood,
the NCAA worked with the
FBI when necessary.
I told the NCAA that
I had received money...
on several occasions.
And that Patrick had received
money and he had received a car.
The first time that I hear
that coaches are paying
Patrick Dennehy is through
media reports and on the news.
The rule violations reportedly
include payments to players.
[reporter] And that Dennehy
bought this SUV with cash,
that Baylor paid its players
under the table.
I remember being asked
if I was paying
Patrick's tuition.
And I said, "No, he's on
scholarship."
You have the question of
how did Patrick pay,
you know, the $30-40,000
tuition to go to...
and fees to go to Baylor
when he couldn't have been.
There were so many questions
flying around
and I never dreamed that
Patrick wasn't on scholarship.
He's a 6'9" future NBA player.
Of course, he's on scholarship,
but he wasn't.
He wasn't on a scholarship.
So, all of a sudden, the
university as a whole
has a real big problem
on their hands.
[Charles Gibson] We're going to
turn next to Dr. Robert Sloan.
He's the President of Baylor.
There have been questions about
whether money was being paid
under the table to
Patrick Dennehy,
who was not on scholarship
and had bought an SUV
and had living expenses
to take care of, etc.
Has the school
looked into that?
You know, there is nothing
in Coach Bliss'
distinguished record to support
those kinds of allegations,
but on the other hand, we take
allegations of this sort
very seriously.
I remember when
Bliss was hired
and I remember thinking
to myself,
"Okay, Dave's back in Texas
where he was before at SMU
and I wonder when all that
SMU stuff is going to
come up and bite him
in the ass."
[reporter] The sanctions
levied against SMU
go beyond the one-year
death penalty.
The NCAA has tacked on
another two years
to its current
probationary period.
SMU will be on probation
until September 1st of 1990.
[Robbins] Football had an
elaborate program in which
the coaches took money
raised by nine boosters,
tens of thousands of dollars
given to recruits
when they signed with
essentially a stipend,
a contract that paid them
X amount a month.
They were caught in 1985,
lost every scholarship one year,
couldn't go to bowl games
and Governor Clemmons and others
swore they wouldn't do it again.
low dramatic music
Well, they did.
They kept paying the players
that were on the quote, payroll,
and that's how they
got the death penalty.
SMU wanted to find out,
really,
how much damage had been done,
so they hired Southwest Security
and Investigations to go in
and investigate this and
I was the guy that did it.
[Robbins] They went to the
best player Dave ever recruited,
John Koncak, and the private
investigator, Denny Kelly,
went to John Koncak and
John Koncak told him.
[Kelly] He told me that
after his freshman year at SMU,
that everybody on the basketball
team was getting paid.
And he said they would brag
about it and he said,
"I wasn't getting paid."
And he said,
"I went to Dave Bliss.
And I said, 'Dave, I want to
get paid like everybody else.'"
And he says, "Within two days,
I had a Ford Mustang,
brand new," and he said,
"I moved into a really,
really nice apartment."
One day I just stopped by
Dave Bliss' office and I went in
and I said, "Dave," I said,
"I'm getting all these stories.
You sure you don't
want to..." you know.
And he just, he got really
upset with me.
He said, "I told you everything
I have to tell you
and that's the way it is and if
anybody's telling you different,
they're lying."
And all this kind of...
He didn't throw me out,
but he, he did everything
but throw me out of his office.
You know, the period
about SMU, that's hard for
me to know too much because
I never did anything.
[Robbins] The NCAA did some
of their own investigating.
They had plenty of information.
They just felt, what else are
we going to do to SMU after
they got the death penalty,
so they kind of put it
on the back burner.
And Bliss went off to
New Mexico with a quote,
clean record, that nobody
knew the real story.
I have no question and
no doubt in my mind,
from what I heard, what I saw,
what people told me,
that Dave Bliss was fully aware
of the players getting paid
in various ways:
cash, cars, apartments,
that kind of thing.
low dramatic music
I received a phone call
from the
Dorchester County Sheriff's
Office, who indicated to me
that Carlton Dotson wanted
to make a statement
and wanted an FBI agent
present.
And frankly, at the time,
I think my first question
to Captain Hurley was, "Who's
Carlton Dotson and why does
he want to talk to the FBI?"
My understanding is that at that
point, an attorney, his attorney
had sent notifications out to
different media outlets
that Carlton Dotson was going
to make a statement.
I was thinking, do we have some
sort of publicity stunt taking
place here or what exactly
are the circumstances?
[Carlton laughs on recording]
[Carlton laughs on recording]
[reporter] Dotson left the
Sheriff's Office in this
burgundy vehicle without
talking to reporters.
He was picked up by his
former high school coach.
I was very concerned about
his mental health at that time.
I tried not to ask a lot of
questions, I just wanted
to talk to him and just make him
know that I was there for him.
He was talking about
seeing angels.
Um, he was crying some.
He didn't eat and
he didn't sleep
and we were very concerned.
Talked about Jesus,
talking about the devil.
He would see...
he would see witches.
He'd say he was Jesus Christ
and you know that's impossible.
He said he had to protect us
because if he would talk,
something would happen to us.
He wanted to protect his family.
You know, he had said that
he saw me in heaven
and don't worry, you know, about
myself, that I was going to-
I was going there.
I was going to make it there
because he saw me there.
He was always cleaning,
just sweep, sweep, sweep.
He would sweep the floor
over and over and over.
He said, "Heaven is not dirty.
I've got to keep this
floor clean."
For the past week or two,
Carlton's family's been
very concerned
about his state of mind,
his mental condition.
It's my understanding that he
was going from room to room in
the house reading Bible verses.
In my recollection of any
conversation that I had
with Carlton, without
waiving any privilege,
it's never been
about criminality.
It's been more about
his mental state.
It was obvious
that he had issues.
I told Carlton that if
there was something that
was going on, that he needed
to get off of his chest,
that he needed to
take care of that.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
low dramatic music
I get a call from my supervisor,
who advised that
he needed me to respond
to the hospital up in
Chestertown, Maryland because
Carlton Dotson was there
and he wanted to
talk to the FBI.
We made arrangements to
speak with him at a hotel.
It was probably 30 minutes,
45 minutes,
until we started getting into
a lot of the good details
that we needed.
[Sponaugle] It was just like,
he was sitting there
telling us a story.
[Spotts] Mr. Dennehy asked
Carlton if he wanted to go
shooting, so they drove and left
in Mr. Dennehy's black Tahoe
and drove to the place where
they were going to shoot.
Carlton had a 9 millimeter
that Mr. Dennehy gave him,
Mr. Dennehy had a .32 caliber.
[Sponaugle] And upon reaching
this clearing,
Dotson claims that
Patrick Dennehy faced him,
pointed the .32 caliber handgun
at him, pulled the trigger,
but it didn't go off.
There was a misfire.
[Spotts] He tried to reload,
two rounds fell out
of the chamber...
[Sponaugle] At which point
Dotson claims,
he made the statement,
"Father, please forgive me,"
Pulled the trigger and shot
Mr. Dennehy once in the head.
He left in Mr. Dennehy's black
Tahoe and drove back to the
apartment, changed clothes...
[Sponaugle] threw those
in a dumpster...
[Spotts] drove to Dallas.
And on his way to Dallas,
he threw the gun,
the 9 millimeter that he
used to shoot Mr. Dennehy,
he threw it in the lake
and continued to drive.
[Sponaugle] He drove to
Hurlock, Maryland.
[Spotts] His uncle helped
him hide the car...
[Sponaugle] after they had
taken the tags off of it
and thrown them
in a wooded area
somewhere between
Hurlock and Federalsburg.
They get the vehicle down there,
they wipe it clean.
[Spotts] They drove
Mr. Dennehy's truck to
Virginia Beach and left it
there and returned home.
[Sponaugle] All he would talk
about was, I was scared
and I didn't know what to do.
So, he's finally telling us this
on July 21st, so several days,
weeks had gone by.
When it was over, he
definitely seemed to relax
and it's not uncommon in this
job, when someone confesses
to you about something
they have done,
that they have a
big sigh of relief.
They just need to get it
off their chest.
They need to tell someone.
He did lay down in the
bed after he confessed.
[Spotts] He didn't want it to
happen, but as far as, you know,
after going through the details
and reliving those details,
he showed no emotion.
[Sponaugle] One of the most
important parts of that
interview was to find
Mr. Dennehy's body
or find out where it was, you
know, to bring some closure
to the family.
We provided maps of Texas to
Carlton, who would look at it.
[Spotts] He turned it two or
three different ways
and he said, "Well, this is
kind of hard to tell."
There's no landmarks or things
like that, but he did eventually
focus on an area where he
felt the body would be.
[Sponaugle] A warrant was
obtained for Carlton Dotson
and he was arrested.
[reporter] Dennehy's roommate
and former teammate,
Carlton Dotson, was charged
with murder last night.
He faces a bail hearing
later this morning.
[Thomas] I ended up going up
there and take a polygraph test
with the FBI and sure enough,
after, I leave out...
I'm walking out of there from
doing the polygraph test
with them, which I passed
with flying colors too,
the Sheriff, he comes to me
and says,
"Thank you for your cooperation,
Mr. Thomas.
Did you hear the good news?"
I'm like, "What news," I'm like,
"What kind of news is
good right now?"
Carlton Dotson just turned
himself in, in Maryland.
He confessed to the murder.
After the arrest is done,
then my office was involved.
We had no proof, other
than Carlton's word,
that there was a murder.
He claimed to have shot and
killed Patrick Dennehy,
but he did it in self-defense.
Under Texas law, you cannot
convict someone on the
uncorroborated confession alone.
People make confessions all the
time, especially those who are
suffering from mental illness,
they make false confessions
or they make confessions which
in their mind are true
that never occurred because
they're psychotic.
During the search for
Mr. Dennehy, we had a
tremendous amount of officers
that were involved.
[Fuller] All these entities in
or around Waco,
they jumped out there
to help us search.
[Segrest] Time was running.
When I indict a case,
I'm telling the judge
and I'm telling everybody else
that it's my opinion
under the law and under
the facts that I have,
this man is guilty of murder,
which is a serious allegation.
I didn't have enough proof
to take it to court
and I was not about to do so.
[Fuller] So, I had a talk with
the DA and he reiterated,
you know, that we don't
have a body, you know,
what are we going to do?
You know, how do you want
me to proceed with this?
Produce the body.
low dramatic music
[Fuller] I went to the area,
out on FM 3400.
I knew that they had searched.
And I just went out there
snooping around.
And I noticed that there was a
little track where you could
drive into the ditch and follow
this little dirt road around.
[door closes]
Then I got out of the car,
you know, at one point
and just started walking,
looking around.
And then, that's when I started
getting the whiff of decomp.
There was a box of ammo
there in the weeds.
The grass had already grown up
and if you really weren't
just looking, you know,
you might have missed it.
So, we decided, this
is in the county.
We're not going to mess with any
crime scene, disturb anything.
Let's notify the county and
we'll need to get together
and search this area, you know,
very heavily the next day.
And I contacted Clay Perry
and told him where we were.
[Perry] I found the location
he was talking about
and picked up a foul odor,
followed the scent carefully,
20, 30 yards maybe,
off the road.
It was Mr. Dennehy.
low dramatic music
I just felt like I needed
to say a prayer, so I did.
I did.
I just prayed for healing and
comfort for the family
and him to go to heaven.
[crying]
I had to tell Valorie
and Wynn, that they had
found a body.
I thought Patrick would still
be alive, that we still
could have a chance that that he
would have been found somewhere.
[crying]
All of us, we just broke down.
[Perry] Due to the sun baking
the skin, the color of the skin
was like a chameleon,
it just blended in
with the terrain out there.
So, it had been
very hard to see.
[Fuller] He definitely was in
latter stages of decomposition
and there wasn't a whole
lot of him, actually left.
[Brian] They were able to
match his dental records
and that was how Patrick ended.
[crying]
His life ended.
[crying]
[Stanton] Everyone associated
with the Baylor basketball
program and our university
is grieving.
We all share in the family's
agony over these past
several weeks and the horror.
His friend has been
charged with murder.
I can tell you that Coach Bliss
feels a deep sense of sorrow
and despair that something so
unreasonable may have happened.
Here at Baylor University,
a committee is now looking
into allegations the school may
have given Patrick Dennehy money
that was in violation
of NCAA rules.
Today, the questions
aren't about Pat
and they aren't about Dotson,
they're about me, my coaches
and our basketball program.
Ah, there's been allegations
that we haven't followed
the rules.
We follow the rules, however
difficult they may be
for 30 years.
But, I believe that the
Board of Inquiry will again,
find that a lot of the things
that have been mentioned
and reported are in fact,
not quite as they have
been portrayed.
This is an internal
Baylor committee
and the people on the committee
work for Baylor,
Underwood being a primary one.
Our committee's responsibility
is limited to issues
concerning compliance
with NCAA regulations.
I believe that the appointment
of this investigative committee
is as a result of reports
in the media, yes.
This investigation occurs
independent of the
athletic department,
for obvious reasons.
[reporter]
Yes, our committee
answers and reports
to the president
of the university.
Coach Bliss tells me
that he meets with the
Baylor Internal Investigation
Committee on a daily basis.
[Sayman] I was at the
Ferrell Center and Coach Bliss
was walking down towards me and
I said, "Coach, I'm sorry that
you're going through all
the things that you are."
And he said, "Ah, thanks, Matt"
and he took me into his office.
And I remember going in there
thinking he's going to explain
everything to me and we're
going to walk out of here
and we're going to be good.
And he started to tell me
about this story of why,
of how Patrick was paying for
school and how he had gone
into their apartment and found
drugs and rolled up money.
And how all these things,
none of it was his fault.
At some point, Coach had
just come back from
meeting with the lawyers and
he seemed very flustered.
It was just the four coaches in
the coach's locker room
and I remember Coach saying,
"If somebody would just
say that they paid Dennehy's
tuition I'd buy him
a Cadillac, shit, I'd buy
them four Cadillacs."
And he kind of starts telling
the story about maybe Pat being
a dealer and I remember telling
him, we can't operate like that
and that's when, he was like,
"Well, do you want
to get fired?"
And I said, "No, I do not."
Abar was balking at him.
Abar was fearful and honestly
wasn't compliant.
[Abar] I remember coming back
to my office and I found a
copy of his contract on my desk
with the portion highlighted
that he had the authority to
hire and fire the assistants.
And at that point,
I understood
what a reality this
was becoming.
He's backed into the
ultimate corner.
We're talking about a murder;
we're talking about a
young man who's dead.
We're talking about family,
grieving, very publicly upset
and now this bizarre cover-up
that he's being asked
to participate in.
He didn't want to do it and he
knows that if he says anything
about it, it will be his word
against Bliss' and a powerful,
well-respected head coach.
[Abar] This could seriously
alter the murder investigation
to a crime.
This was going to result in
everybody being put on a
witness stand under oath and
being asked these questions.
And once that happens,
once this begins, those lies,
because the trial is so far off,
will be truth by the time
that we get to trial.
I'd be lying if I said that I
wasn't kind of motivated
in a fashion, by that,
to do what I did.
I went and I picked up a
$25 recorder and I actually
wired myself up.
I put the mini-cassette in my
beltline and then I took the mic
and I ran it up through my shirt
to the side of my pants,
close to my arm.
So, you really couldn't tell if
I pulled my shirt out a little
bit from my belt, you really
couldn't tell that the
mic was there.
And then I would check myself in
the mirror to see if the mic
was concealed, or it doesn't
look that weird and when
I felt like it was good and
in place, I left the house.
low dramatic music
The first day I recorded
with Coach Bliss,
Coach Bliss is at the board.
He writes, "reasonable doubt."
[Bliss] [on recording]
Reasonable doubt is...
[Abar] And he underlines it.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
Nobody can say that
we paid his tuition
because he's dead.
Okay, so you guys
paid his tuition.
I remember sitting there,
getting upset, ah,
but wanting to make sure I
maintained my composure.
I remember getting nervous
because I realized
the damning things that he was
saying are now recorded.
Coach Bliss wanted R.T. Guinn,
Ellis Kidd and Harvey Thomas
to tell stories about Patrick.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
I mean, he's dead serious.
And you're sitting there
and it's hard not to laugh
sometimes about it.
And when I tell you I have
mixed emotions, it's like,
because some of it is like
so absurd, it's hilarious.
It's like, okay.
And then, at other times you
start thinking about
how chilling it all is...
and sad and...
you know, Patrick's body
had just been found.
I asked him, you know, well do
you think that Harvey is going
to go along with this plan?
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
Harvey Thomas was one of the
key elements of the story
from the very beginning
because who was this guy?
Was he threatening them?
No, this guy's fine.
He's a good guy.
There are no threats.
This is a red herring
you're chasing.
So, when you finally hear
the tapes, Bliss is saying,
Harvey will lie.
He'll... you know, he'll lie
when it doesn't even matter
because we lied for him.
We stood up for Harvey.
We did it for Harvey, so Harvey
will do anything for us,
including lie for us.
Because we did it for him,
we lied for him.
That's what he's saying.
And at that point, you don't
know who killed who.
low dramatic music
We're sitting in the
locker room with Ellis Kidd.
Coach is beginning to tell Ellis
the story about the drugs.
He's telling him, "I've
already got this information.
I'm just looking for
confirmation from you that
this information is accurate."
Now, that is a lie.
There are no witnesses
saying there's wads of cash.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
We listened to the tape
before, the other tape where
you say we're going to
invent wads of cash,
but he is now attributing his
lie to other witnesses.
That's calculation.
I think when the lights are
off and the doors are closed,
God knows what some of these
coaches are saying.
This was the ultimate, lights
are off, doors closed
and we are plotting to not just
cover up NCAA rules violations,
but besmirch the name of
a young man whose body
has just been found in a
field outside of Waco.
[recording playback]
There was never one person
that said they actually
saw Patrick selling drugs.
There were people who said...
they were saying he
smoked marijuana,
but selling drugs, no.
As far as things went with
inside the apartment
with drugs and whatnot, I never
saw any evidence to suggest
that Patrick was selling drugs.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
I don't take sides.
I gather the facts and present
them to the DA's office,
who presents these
facts to the court.
I was never on his side.
When Coach Bliss says that
the police are on our side
and the athletic director's
on our side
and the head of the
Investigative Committee
is on our side,
the kids were definitely
going to believe Coach Bliss.
When I approached Ellis Kidd,
I made it clear to him that
he did not need to do this.
He did not need to
participate in this plan.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
low dramatic music
[Abar] I remember Coach Bliss
demanding a meeting with
R.T. and Ellis together to
practice their story
in the locker room.
Both of them know
what the story is.
They both know it's a lie.
They both know what Coach is
asking them to do
and at this point, they are
trying to please him.
And Coach says something like,
"Was there cocaine there?"
[recording playback]
And Coach kind of picks up
on this and runs with it
because he pulls out
a tape recorder.
Now, I'm tape recording
this conversation.
He pulls out a tape recorder
and gives it to them.
And I think he handed it to me,
where he gave it to me and said,
"Have them practice their
stories" or something like that.
And I am just sitting
there like, shocked.
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[recording playback]
[Robbins] What else was that,
other than telling the sheriff,
they're telling law enforcement
a bullshit story that would
throw them off the track and to
me I mean, that-that fell
into the category of
trying to subvert the
investigation of a crime.
[Abar] R.T. Guinn repeated
the story to Mr. Underwood
that Coach Bliss had told him
and made him practice
down in the locker room.
I know that for certain because
he confirmed that to me.
I don't have full confirmation
that he repeated it to the
sheriff, which was Coach Bliss'
intentions all along,
but I'm pretty certain
that he did.
low dramatic music
I was called into the
investigative chambers
over at the law school.
Professor Underwood asked if he
could look at my bank statements
because he had reason to
believe that I may have
paid for the tuition.
And I knew I was caught
at that time.
And so, I asked the other
members of the committee to
leave the room because
Professor Underwood was a
good friend of mine and
I wanted to talk to him
and apologize to him in private.
Uh... I have resigned
Baylor University,
effective immediately.
Um...
Today, I was made aware of some
situations within our program
after meeting with the
Inquiry Committee,
that rules were broken and
I intend to cooperate fully
as the inquiry continues.
Uh, I'll do what I can
to make things right.
Thank you.
[Bliss] What you go through
when you have in front of you,
not only having paid
for the scholarship,
which is an NCAA crime.
But then you have a violation
of the code of life,
where you are willing to lie
to the people that you
love the most and lie to the
people that have trusted you
and lie to the parents of
people that you have said
you'll look after their son.
I had allowed the world of
competitive athletics to just
take me to a place that was so
dark and devious that I just,
I just tried to wake up
from the nightmare,
but it just wasn't to be.
I can't speak for everybody,
but I don't think any of us
are the people that we
sometimes think we are.
When Bliss resigned,
that's when I heard
about the tapes.
We had a three-way phone
conversation with
Abar's attorney at the time,
LaNelle McNamara
and he had given them to
Ms. McNamara and she, I think
had turned them into cassettes
and had given them
to someone else within
the Baylor community
for some sort of safekeeping
and that they were going
to go to the NCAA.
When the NCAA gets them,
you will get them.
So, I went down to Waco the
Thursday night before
and went to her house and she
gave me the cassette tape.
Several.
Two, I think, with these
taped conversations on them.
And the meeting with the NCAA
was going to be the next day
and here you go, listen to them,
but I need them back
in the morning for the meeting.
I started to listen and I
started to take a few notes
and then I started to
transcribe them.
I got lost in it and I just
kept going and going.
And the next thing I knew,
I looked up and it was dawn
and I thought maybe this is what
it was like, for the first time,
to hear Nixon talking to
Haldeman because it was just
so unvarnished and so raw.
I'll never forget, I talked
to Abar that morning
for maybe 15 minutes.
Why did you do this?
And did Harvey- did Bliss
really say what I think he said
about Harvey Thomas?
And the last thing he said to me
as he walked out the door,
he said, "Well here goes my
career," something like that.
And I said, "Man, I sure
hope not.
I hope they get this."
[reporter] The Fort Worth
Star-Telegram reports
obtaining secretly recorded
conversations of
Coach Dave Bliss engineering
a cover-up.
Baylor University officials
are expressing outrage
over revelations that their
former basketball coach,
told players to lie in the
Patrick Dennehy investigation.
The toughest morning
that I went through,
I believe was the day after
the tapes came out.
Because the tapes is when,
you know,
it's over for him, you know,
there's no more hiding.
I can't tell you what a
stunning revelation
that is and how--
I mean, how it just
feels like a knife
stabbing straight
through your heart.
If I ever meet him in public,
I don't care how old he is,
I don't care how weak I am,
I'm going to knock his teeth in.
They thought he paid for
his scholarship
by selling drugs because,
you know, this is off camera,
but he was selling drugs.
He sold to all the
white guys on campus.
[Kondelis]
Oh, yeah.
I mean you don't think,
yeah, he was the worst.
[Kondelis]
I know, but I'm telling you,
but I mean, that's why...
but, you'll never be able
to use this.
[Kondelis]
Because they were so busy
hanging me.
[Kondelis]
They knew all that stuff.
That's why they never, the
police never went after me
with a felony or a
misdemeanor or anything.
He was rampant and all
the players knew it.
What they would do...
[Kondelis]
I know, but that's because
of the moment.
These guys would come
to his door...
[knocks]
They'd knock on his door
and everybody's in
playing video games.
And Patrick would take them in
the back room, sell the stuff,
come walking out, get back
into video games.
And so, that's why the next day
when it says Coach Bliss
went after and talked to the
players because I wanted the
players to go and tell the
police what they've
been telling me.
But, it's never going to
reach the light of day.
[Kondelis]
[Bliss] Well, this-- the
reason I came up with it
is because now Underwood,
Underwood-- he was chasing it.
And so, when I heard he was
chasing it, I just dovetailed
my excuse right in with his.
In fact, there is an article...
[Kondelis]
[Bliss] I jumped on that
bandwagon.
And I don't mind saying that.
[Kondelis]
[Bliss] Uh, but, the reason
I jumped on it and I wanted
the players to come in and
that's when I told them
about the talking points.
Because I said, you guys just
tell these investigators
what you know because again,
this isn't right
and I'm bad for doing it,
but if they'll just say what
they've been telling me
all the time,
I might escape and at that time,
I'm not thinking clearly at all.
I'm just trying to, you know,
grovel for high ground,
you know, from drowning.
[Kondelis] Well, let me
ask you this, then...
[Bliss] You know, and I-
I apologize for--
I just can't go there.
I ended up settling with the
Dennehy family and I--
because they made a civil suit
against me and it's not for
a lot of money or anything
like that.
But, I just, it was easier
to make it go away.
[Kondelis]
[Bliss] Um, but because,
I mean, I didn't do anything.
I said bad things about
their kid, but...
But, you know, unfortunately,
the parents also knew
that he was a drug- druggie.
So, I mean...
[Kondelis]
[Bliss] What I did is, I got
in the mud with the pigs,
you know, and I- and I paid a
price and the pigs liked it.
[laughs]
low dramatic music
[Irvin] My representation of
Carlton ended when he was
brought back to Texas.
[Segrest] He waived extradition
and agreed to come back,
so that was no problem.
He was appointed lawyers.
He had no money to hire
his own lawyers.
Generally, it's unusual to have
two defense lawyers appointed
in just a murder case, two in
a capital case is required,
but Judge Allen appointed
Russ Hunt and Abel Reyna,
his defense lawyers.
They were going to make a very,
very formidable adversary
in the courtroom.
It was going to be something
you would want to see
on television.
So, they asked, and the judge
granted, a motion to have
him examined for competency
to stand trial.
He was evaluated and then he was
committed to the state hospital
until he regained competence.
In almost any jurisdiction,
you try to have three people
to evaluate the competency
of that individual.
You want three because 2-to-1,
there's not going
to be any ties,
but when you have three
doctors, like in Carlton's case.
Three highly educated,
well-trained individuals
that make a determination that
there is evidence of psychosis,
of severe impairment, that
this person is not competent.
It just doesn't get
any better than that.
You number one, start focusing
on a defense of insanity.
At some point in time, we find
out that a doctor makes a
determination that Carlton
is competent to stand trial.
[Segrest] They said that Carlton
has a psychosis, NOS,
not otherwise specified, that
he did have a mental disease.
Yeah, you deemed my client
competent to go forward
and proceed to trial,
but by the way,
I want you to take all those
psychotropic medications.
I want you to stay on the meds.
I want you to stay on the meds
that are affecting your brain.
We became convinced that
Carlton was certainly
guilty of the murder and some
of his self-defense claims
weren't corroborated by
the physical evidence
that came along later.
So, what actually happened
out here was
Patrick was shooting away
and Carlton was behind him
and Carlton shot him in the back
and the bullet came
out the front.
The second one was here to here,
so he shot him while
he was on the ground.
[muffled gun shot]
I have no doubt in that and the
evidence pretty much shows that.
low dramatic music
[Segrest] I was convinced
that we had enough
evidence to convict.
After Carlton regained
competence and Reyna
and Mr. Hunt tried to convince
me that it would be in the
best interest of everyone...
and this may be where I
have a memory of people
playing the Baylor card.
And it may have come from them,
both Abel went to Baylor
and Russ, I think went to Baylor
law school, that they wanted
to plead it and they were
willing to plead for 30 years.
"This is making Baylor look bad.
This is making Baylor look bad.
Can't we just plead it,
get it over with."
In Texas law, 60 years is
equivalent to a life sentence.
He's wanting to plead guilty
and if he's not insane
at the time and if he was
not acting in self-defense,
then I think he needs
closer to the 60 years
and they wanted to split
the difference half...
you know, give him half a
sentence, so to speak
and I thought that was not just
under those circumstances.
Whatever Baylor's mess, they
made it, was not going to be my
problem and that-that-that offer
was ultimately rejected.
low dramatic music
Somewhere in the push to go
to trial, I was approached
by one or both the
defense lawyers and they
threw a question at me:
"What if he pleads guilty,
open to the court
and lets the judge assess
his punishment?"
There was no deal with the
prosecutor's office
for a sentence for
Carlton Dotson.
That was never there.
It kind of came as a surprise
to me, their willingness,
I-I basically questioned their
veracity at that point,
whether they were
talking true to me
or if they were just pulling
my leg and they assured me
that they were willing to do it.
The judge that initially
was going to hear the case,
had gone on vacation.
And a juvenile court judge was
going to fill in for his cases.
I think he's a Baylor-Baylor-
Baylor grad too.
That's when Carlton
decided to--
or his lawyers decided for
him to plead guilty.
The change of plea
took only maybe ten minutes,
at most.
Carlton Dotson was never
even placed under oath.
The first thing that
is addressed is the
competency of the individual.
Everyone was asked about
his competency except him.
He is the most important person,
that we need to make sure
is competent on that day,
at that hour, at that minute,
at that second.
Why, in this case, did the judge
not ask him if he was competent?
Why did he not inquire of
his mental health history?
Why did he not ask him if
he was on any psychotropic
medications at the day that he
was giving his change of plea?
Why not ask him whether or
not he felt okay that day?
Is it affecting his ability to
understand and comprehend
what's going on?
The State is required
to read a factual allegation
against Carlton Dotson.
They must do that.
The judge asked that that
initially be done in this case,
at the change of
plea proceeding.
The lawyers for Carlton Dotson
said, no, we waive that reading.
So, he plead guilty and
judge accepted his plea.
[Irvin] A pre-sentence
investigation report
was ordered by the judge.
He said, "I want
it back in a week.
You're going to be
sentenced next week."
This was out of the ordinary.
Is it-is it adequate?
The judge thought it was.
[Kondelis]
I was...
Yeah, I would say
I was surprised.
I've seen the Probation
Department take six weeks
to do a pre sentence report
on it-- on shoplifting.
I was really shocked at the
way things evolved.
I hadn't seen it done
this way before.
This case had so much
going on and the sentencing
is probably five pages long,
which probably took
all of four minutes...
to have the whole proceeding.
[Segrest] Judge Strother came
back and assessed
a 35-year prison sentence
for murder.
I was a little befuddled.
I was a little flummoxed,
by the sentence.
I thought really it
should be higher.
[Kondelis]
Yeah. Well, yeah.
Again, you can make
of it what you want.
[Abel Reyna] We really felt that
Judge Strother would be fair.
We really felt that he would
consider everything.
I have nothing but praise
for Judge Strother.
He did what he felt like
was fair.
[Irvin] I find no comfort in
the outcome and apparently,
Carlton found no comfort in
the outcome because within
a matter of days of saying he
wouldn't appeal, he appealed.
He seeks an appeal.
He seeks an appeal.
Maybe that's the day that
he's thinking clearly.
And he persisted in
an appeal for years,
only to be rejected
at every turn.
Ineffective assistance of
counsel, is a legal term
which a person who is
being represented
is complaining about the
level of representation
that they received.
Carlton has given up his right
to appeal, so he doesn't have
the benefit of legal counsel.
It's hard for him to complain as
a layperson, so he's boxed in.
He can't even get a lawyer
appointed by the State of Texas,
to represent him in
making such a claim
because he gave up that right.
I think anyone on the outside
looking in, has to say,
"Oh my gosh, he gave up
everything.
He gave up everything."
He's not only being put away,
he is essentially being shut up.
[Perry] I would have loved to
have seen him get life,
but our court system is our
court system and the mere fact
that he is convicted as a
convicted murderer
and he is going to serve time in
prison beats the heck out of a
long trial and a not guilty
because one juror isn't sure.
[Segrest] We didn't hear
what people's version
of the truth was.
It doesn't necessarily
obscure the truth.
The truth is still
there somewhere.
[Irvin] People forget courts
are designed for public viewing
so we will know that our
system of justice is fair.
That's what they're
designed for.
The public got none of that.
What the public got in this
case was a result that
seemed to be... let me be
careful how I say it...
that some would be happy with.
Alumni, boosters, anyone
associated with those programs.
And people who did not want to
see their beloved university
or their beloved program hurt.
[Segrest] The risks of going
to trial and have all this
brought out and Lord knows
what the Baylor part
would have played into.
Would we have gone off
on a tangent on that?
Would that have become a
sideshow in the trial?
Would we have lost focus
on guilt, innocence,
on proper punishment?
Would it have been
Baylor on trial?
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that we could
have kept it from that.
I have to believe that everyone
does what they're supposed to do
in good faith and
I have to believe
that that's what occurred
in this case.
No one knows why
this happened.
You know, I wish I did.
I wish I knew a motive.
We never really knew what
surrounded the
greater picture, why Carlton
would shoot Patrick.
[Dotson's grandmother]
...because he keeps saying "we".
When they first told me
that they thought
Carlton killed Patrick,
I was completely shocked.
I thought they were
truly best friends.
I always assumed it was Harvey,
just because of all the beef
and all the paranoia
and all the anxiety.
I mean, it was horrible.
I mean, Patrick was miserable.
He feared for his life.
[Okopnyi] Carlton may have
pulled the trigger,
but there may have been
other forces at work.
I still believe that
Harvey knows more
about what went on
than he's letting on.
If Patrick and Carlton
hadn't felt threatened
in the first place, the guns
wouldn't have been there.
Had the guns not been involved,
we wouldn't be missing
a Baylor basketball player
right now.
He would still be around,
he'd probably be in the
NBA right now, in fact.
I never had any altercations.
Like I said, the time I spent
with those guys was short.
I mean, I was only there maybe
a week, a week and a half
before the whole thing happened.
So, I don't... I don't know why.
[Kondelis]
No, never.
[Kondelis]
No, far from it,
far from it.
[Kondelis]
I'm not sure.
That's a question
I want to know too.
I want to know the
answer to that too.
[Fuller] At one particular
point in the investigation,
I got a call from an employee
at the Greyhound Bus station
and he asked if I would come by
and speak with him,
that he had found something
and he didn't know if it would
be part of my investigation.
I found that he had
a manila folder.
It had photographs in it of
Baylor basketball players.
Through my investigation, it
was revealed that Harvey Thomas'
cousin, Larry Johnson had
ridden the Greyhound bus
back to his home in Virginia.
[Abar] Prior to Patrick being
found, the coaching staff
gave me the money to purchase
a ticket and then I dropped
Larry off at the bus station.
I become concerned about why
Larry was asked to leave town
so quickly and why I was tasked
with putting him on a bus.
I prayed that it wasn't
because he had done something.
low dramatic music
[Kondelis]
Yeah, I-I never, uh, never
heard of anything.
Unt-, uh, uh, b-b...
There was some talk after the
fact of two of our players
being threatened, but again,
this was in the late spring,
I think early summer and I never
heard anything of the sort.
Now, again, a lot of things
surfaced after the fact, uh,
but this was never brought to
our attention before that.
[Kondelis]
That was after the fact.
[Kondelis]
Yeah, after everything.
[Kondelis]
[Kondelis]
low dramatic music
And again, it's all
after the fact.
Uh, I don't know how you...
[Kondelis]
Um, you know, uh...
[Kondelis]
Yeah, but I'm not sure what, uh,
what it has to do with anything.
[Kondelis]
Um, okay.
Well, I-I mean, I'll clarify it,
but a-a-again,
it didn't have anything to do
with-with my situation.
Um, uh, along about the,
uh, early part of June,
I had heard from some of the
players and they had
talked about, uh,
being threatened
by one of our new
incoming players.
And so, I did what
any coach would do.
I tried to talk to them and ask,
you know, the-the, uh,
the truthfulness of it and,
uh-uh, again, I thought it was,
a lot of times, it's
just basketball players
playing basketball and there
wasn't anything that seemed
to bear any need to go
any further with it.
And then, you know,
Larry took off, so...
low dramatic music
[phone ringing]
[Larry Johnson] [on phone]
Yeah?
[Kondelis] [on phone]
Hi, is this Larry?
[Johnson] Yeah.
[Kondelis] Hey, Larry,
this is Pat Kondelis.
I got your number from your...
[dial tone]
[Robbins] You know, to call it
a college sports scandal is...
is to minimize it.
An innocent person
lost their life.
[Announcer] Coach Bliss has
over 500 victories as
a head coach from the NCAA
schools, but more importantly,
carries a title now as a
Christian coach,
Coach Dave Bliss.
[Bliss] Thirteen years ago,
I committed several NCAA
violations, including
paying the scholarships
of two of our players.
And unfortunately, a month
later, one of the individuals
who was involved in my payment
was murdered and my life
spun out of control.
I didn't miss the fame.
I didn't miss being on TV.
What I missed was being
called Coach.
[chokes up]
Dave Bliss may be talking in
this room this morning,
but if God is speaking to you
in this room, don't wait.
Accept His son, read His word,
claim His promises
and trust the cross.
I'm grateful to have the
opportunity to share
with you all this morning.
Thank you.
[reporter] Many thought Bliss
would never return to the
college game after scandalous
behavior cost him everything
at Baylor.
[reporter] Southwest Christian
University, near Oklahoma City,
has hired Bliss to coach
its basketball team.
I'm a deeply, deeply
religious man.
I think God already gave
Coach Bliss a second chance.
I'm not higher than God.
So, I think it would be arrogant
for anybody to say that,
but it sounds interesting
when people say, oh,
he's getting a second chance
or he's getting a third chance.
No, I went after the
most qualified.
Dave has a changed heart
and has definitely
changed his life.
And of course, we want to have a
successful basketball program.
The bigger the mistake, the
bigger the lesson learned
and when I have a man who
has learned a big lesson,
I want him on my campus.
I think people, you know,
know that rules violations
are rampant.
Just about every coach
is breaking them in some
form or fashion.
This was just beyond the pale.
What's happened to Abar in the
immediate aftermath
and since then is a horrible
indictment on that industry.
If one of my assistants
would tape every one
of our conversations with
me not knowing it,
there's no way he would
be on my staff.
What I would think should have
happened is Abar Rouse got up,
really stood up
to Dave and said,
"There's no way we can do this."
Here's the one guy who did the
right thing in the situation at
Baylor and he can't get a job,
with 327 Division 1 programs,
does that strike you
as patently unfair?
He didn't do the right thing.
The right thing would have been
to stand up in the meeting
and tell the head coach,
"I'm not going for this.
This is not going to happen."
Well, except then Dave Bliss
could have denied it,
and he had it taped.
[Robbins] This truly is a
den of thieves.
The fact that Dave Bliss is
coaching and Abar Rouse isn't,
is just flat out wrong,
in my view.
[Abar] I'm a teacher in a
federal prison now.
And I love it.
I love what I do.
I'm proud of what I do.
If I was coaching, could I
say the same thing?
Coach Bliss has said that he
is sorry and he deserves
a second chance and
has asked for redemption.
I can't buy into it.
I can't believe and it's not
because I don't believe in
redemption or second chances.
It's because I work with
criminals on a constant basis.
I know what fake
redemption looks like
and what real
redemption looks like.
The guy's a marketing genius.
He's got a book coming out.
He just got a job and he's got
two or three friends
that he's known for his whole
life who are in his camp.
He is who he's going to be
and that's what it is.
What really sucks is that for
the world to see what kind of
person that guy is, that
somebody had to die.
We got his stuff from
his apartment.
He had a cell phone there.
A cell phone that had this
recording of his voice.
I played that over
and over and over.
I want his voice every day,
I want to hear his voice.
low dramatic music
[Irvin] Everyone's pointing
their finger at Carlton.
Carlton Dotson wasn't
your cancer.
He is a byproduct
of your cancer.
If Baylor University doesn't
at some point in time
respond to requests for
interviews and answer questions
forthright concerning what was
going on with that program,
the cancer's always going to be
there and it will resurface.
If you don't get it all,
it will come back.
[soft instrumental music]
This doggone world
we're living in
It's giving me a fit
It seems like everywhere
I turn
I see a hypocrite
Well, if ya wanna
go to heaven
Well, you can't live
like that
So let me tell you, brother
God's gonna getcha
for that
God's gonna getcha
for that
God's gonna getcha
for that
There's no place
to run and hide
For He knows where you're at
God's gonna getcha
for that
God's gonna getcha
for that
Every wrong thing
that you do
God's gonna getcha
for that