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Deleted board post inconsistent with email report related to Spencer Hadley suspension
- Updated: September 20, 2013
The Salt Lake Tribune‘s report of the email it obtained regarding the activities of suspended BYU linebacker Spencer Hadley contradicts the Internet post that likely sparked their investigation. The differences raise more questions about the strange situation of a semi-anonymous fan turning in Hadley to the University of Utah for alleged NCAA violations as well as honor code issues.
In the Salt Lake Tribune’s report, Jay Drew wrote, “The GRAMA request was sent to Utah by The Tribune after online reports surfaced claiming that photos of Hadley had been sent to both the U. and the newspaper.”
There is no evidence to support the idea that the Tribune’s reporting of the email they received from the University of Utah is anything but entirely accurate. The email report should be easily verifiable with another open records request, and this post is in no way accusatory toward the Trib.
However — the story in the email as obtained by the Trib is oddly different from the original message board post believed to be referenced as “online reports” that sparked the records request.
As of Thursday night, the post that was originally made on CougarBoard on Monday — and confirmed by CougarBoard to have been deleted by moderators in 59 seconds — was still accessible on at least two different Utah-oriented sites. One message board had a full screenshot of the original CougarBoard post and the other had copied the text from a Google cache. CougarBoard moderators also still have access to the message’s content.
Loyal Cougars has decided not to provide the full text of the message board post or link to it, as it contains additional names and details outside what is found in the Trib that are completely unverified and potentially libelous.
But we can use the text to compare details relative to what is already reported in the Trib.
The handle used on the CougarBoard post was “dlucy44,” which seems consistent with the reported email being written by someone using the name Darren Lucy.
In the CougarBoard post, the user claims to be a BYU fan. The writer “dlucy44” asks about how “our” coach and “our” AD would be handling a potential Honor Code violation, and laments that it is “not what we would expect out of one of our Senior linebackers.” But according to the Tribune’s report about the email, the author claims to be a “die hard Utah Utes fan.”
In the CougarBoard post, “dlucy44” claims that both the Salt Lake Tribune and the University of Utah already have pictures (plural) of the Hadley incident in question. The screen shot shows — and CougarBoard moderators have verified to us — that the post was made Monday, September 16, 2013 at 12:44 p.m. The Tribune’s report says the email was sent to the University of Utah at 2:16 p.m.
Spencer Hadley was suspended for five games on Tuesday.
The Tribune’s report also only refers to a single photo being obtained and specifically denies the direct receipt of any photos.
The message board post is vague about the date of the photos with the statement “The Tribune has pictures as recent as last night.” It could be referring to the date the photos were allegedly taken (last night in the post, or Sunday, September 15). It could also refer to the date the photos were sent, but that would again contradict the report that the Tribune did not directly receive photos and that the email was sent to the school later on Monday.
In a radio interview about the situation, Tribune reporter Jay Drew said the photo was dated August 29. One would think this would be a date Spencer Hadley would likely not have been near Las Vegas, the supposed scene of the incident in question — BYU played at Virginia on August 31 and flew to Charlottesville on August 30.
One of the few consistencies in both the original post and the email are allegations of NCAA violations. The message board post specifically ties the situation to a booster. At this time, there appears to have been no confirmation of an investigation from the NCAA or a report of violations made by BYU to the NCAA.
Sources close to the program tell Loyal Cougars the accusations of booster involvement are not a concern at this time.
Spencer Hadley is suspended and it seems as though there is some evidence as to why. Aside from that, Bronco Mendenhall is unlikely to suspend a player based on second- and third-hand reports. But the differences in details found in the message board post and the related email sent to the University of Utah are definitely interesting. It remains to be seen if any clarification to the bizarre contradictions in the author/emailer’s communication timeline and fan loyalty will be found.
Greg Welch and Brett Hein contributed to this article.
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10 Comments
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Sanpete
September 20, 2013 at 8:23 am
The part about photos “as recent as last night” refers to photos taken the night before. The deleted post later said Hadley had been in Las Vegas the night before.
I don’t see anything too unlikely about the August 29 time stamp, if Hadley was flying back and forth.
As for the claims to be a fan of both schools and other inconsistencies with the facts as reported, that suggests deception, of course.
That the U’s compliance office was contacted but apparently not BYU’s (or at least Lucy made no mention of it) is odd.
Ryan
September 20, 2013 at 8:32 am
I too noticed the discrepancies. Since we don’t know all of the facts we can’t draw completely accurate conclusions from this. However, by questioning the motives of the original poster and emailer (I think it’s safe to assume it is the same person), and examining other facts we can begin to paint a picture of what happened. If the picture was indeed taken on August 29th, why would the emailer wait until Monday of the rivalry week to pass it along to Utah. Also, why did the emailer send it to Utah and not BYU? Unless the emailer already had the email address of the Utah Compliance Office, I assume he had to look it up. Wouldn’t it have been just as easy to look up the email address for the BYU honor code office? I have read the post which includes allegations that would certainly lead to not only Hadley’s expulsion from school, but also an NCAA investigation. How is it that a Ute fan who happens to catch Hadley in a compromising situation was also privy to the other information which would not have been discernible from a chance encounter in a night club? My opinion is that after taking the picture, the emailer decided he wanted the picture to do as much damage to Hadley and BYU as possible. He attempted to do this by concocting serious allegations and waiting to pass the information along to a compliance office the week of the rivalry game. I believe his post on Cougarboard was made knowing that he was about to execute his plan. I think he was gauging what type of reaction these allegations would cause among Cougar fans.
Thomas
September 20, 2013 at 10:11 am
Sheesh. Let the CougarBoard drama stay on CougarBoard. No need to talk about their dregs.
Sanpete
September 20, 2013 at 10:16 am
This is now a national story, not merely CB drama.
Brett Hein
September 20, 2013 at 12:30 pm
The CB poster looks like the same guy who sent the emails. It’s not about the messae board, it’s about this Darren Lucy character. Thought that connection was made pretty clear.
Sanpete
September 20, 2013 at 10:14 am
A lot of BYU fans are assuming this was done by a Utah fan. It seems more likely to me it was done by someone who knows Hadley personally (not many Utah fans do). The fans calling for the rivalry to be ended over this are getting carried away, in any case. As fans often do.
Sanpete
September 20, 2013 at 1:14 pm
CB reports are that the IP address for the deleted post is from Las Vegas, which also makes the Utah fan idea less likely.
Skirez
September 20, 2013 at 11:57 am
Here is the actual emails from DLucy to Utah Compliance office supposedly. Found them linked on Utefans.net.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1nh-u5fj DZJZVVscUZHQThHLVk/edit?pli=1
Skirez
September 20, 2013 at 11:58 am
Try This.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1nh-u5fjDZJZVVscUZHQThHLVk/edit?pli=1
Brett Hein
September 20, 2013 at 2:04 pm
This is too funny. Everything is pretty much the same except he changed his self-identified fan allegiance ….. and it came 1.5 hours after the message board post.