Testimony begins Wednesday morning in the federal fraud trial against former Georgia football coach Jim Donnan. If opening statements are any indication, sparks will fly when witnesses finally take the stand.
Jury selection began Tuesday morning and was completed about midway through the afternoon. A panel of nine women and five men were chosen from among a pool of 100 potential jurors.
No sooner had the jury been seated than they heard the opening statements of lead defense attorney Ed Tolley and U.S. prosecutor Paul McCommon. What they heard was two distinctly different descriptions concerning Donnan and his role in an alleged Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of $22.9 million.
McCommon went first and characterized Donnan as the mastermind in a scheme to get his well-heeled friends to invest in GLC Limited, a retail-goods business. He described Gregory L. Crabtree, Donnan’s partner and one-time co-defendant, as a failed businessman who lacked the means or savvy to orchestrate such a sophisticated financial plot. He pointed out Crabtree’s two previous bankruptcies from failed painting businesses before founding GLC as a simple discount-store operation.
“He had no history or track record for making a lot of money,” McCommon said of Crabtree. “He opened one store. No record of making investments; no record of making any money from investments. That was clear to anyone who knew him.”
Last month, Crabtree pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit fraud in the sale of a security. He’s expected to testify for the prosecution.
Tolley described Donnan as both the “first victim” and “last victim” in the scam.
“It’s our position Jim Donnan had no idea what was going on in West Virginia was a scheme,” Tolley told the jury. “… Crabtree figured out early on he could trade off Jim Donnan’s celebrity. And he was a celebrity. His name is mud now.”
Tolley said Donnan had a net worth of about $7 million in 2007 but now is broke. “He has lost it all as a result of his investments in GLC,” Tolley said.
A key witness for both sides is Daniel Shoemaker. Shoemaker, who first met Donnan when Shoemaker was a sports information director at Marshall University, was the longtime vice president of collegiate development at ESPN before joining the College of Charleston as the director of athletic advancement earlier this year. It was Shoemaker who introduced Donnan to Crabtree in 2001.
Tolley claims Shoemaker brought in Donnan after it was clear Shoemaker wasn’t going to get paid back on the $110,000 he loaned Crabtree to fund GLC. Tolley claims Shoemaker presented Crabtree to Donnan as a sophisticated contractor and moneymaker. After Donnan’s initial investment of $80,000 to GLC brought a return of 30 to 40 percent, “the hook was set,” Tolley said.
In a 41-count indictment, Donnan is accused of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The witness list for the trial is like a who’s who in sports. Among the individuals who could be called are football coaches Frank Beamer, Mack Brown, Dennis Franchione, Mike Gottfried, Bill Parcells, Barry Switzer and Tommy Tuberville; basketball coaches Billy Gillispie and Mark Gottfried and several former Georgia football players, including Kendrell Bell, Jonas Jennings and Hines Ward.
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