May 21, 2002

By MARY FOSTER
AP Sports Writer

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The two women who accused a number of LSU athletes of plagiarism and other misconduct have retold their stories to LSU investigators and an NCAA representative.

"They wanted to get this done," said Aidan Reynolds, the attorney that represents Tiffany Mayne, a former instructor, and Caroline Owen, a former graduate assistant. "It was their obligation to do it and they wanted to get this behind them."

The pair were questioned Tuesday by LSU associate athletic director Bo Bahnsen, LSU lawyer Mike Pharis and Diane Dennis of the NCAA.

The women, who already provided LSU with copies of allegedly plagiarized papers and Owen's grade book, gave copies to Dennis on Tuesday.

Mayne and Owen have sued the university, contending they were pressured to keep quiet about their accusations and targeted after coming forward. Neither spoke with reporters after the meeting.

Reynolds, who asked that an NCAA official be present when LSU interviewed his clients, said Dennis took an active role in questioning Mayne and Owen.

"She's here to get to the bottom of what actually transpired," Reynolds said. "She was concerned particularly about the 10 players who received preferential treatment in their grades, that were given extra study sessions to bring their grades up."

LSU is investigating accusations of academic improprieties involving the Academic Center for Athletes.

The accusations center on a number of football players and include charges of plagiarism, improper use of note takers, tutors and academic center employees providing too much help, athletes taking unsupervised tests and superiors pressuring instructors to let improprieties continue.

Reynolds said the "lion's share" of Tuesday's questioning centered on Mayne and the Academic Center for Athletes.

Mayne has said five LSU athletes presented papers in May 2001 that Mayne believed were plagiarized. Owen said she graded papers from LSU football players she believed were plagiarized.

If found guilty of a major NCAA violation, LSU could be punished as a repeat offender. The university is still on probation for sanctions relating to the recruitment of former basketball player Lester Earl.

LSU has not said when it expects to finish its investigation and submit the report to the NCAA.