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Monday, August 18
Updated: August 19, 4:16 PM ET
 
Guinn's tape of meeting in authorities' hands

ESPN.com news services

AUSTIN, Texas -- The morning after a plot by Dave Bliss to cover up potential NCAA violations was revealed, the former Baylor basketball coach met for about an hour with one of the players he tried to use in the scheme, bringing a tape recorder to the meeting.

Richard Guinn, father of Bears senior center R.T. Guinn, also recorded the meeting at his house Saturday and gave his copy to Baylor investigators. The investigators plan to listen to the tape on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

"I told them I wanted the tape to validate [to authorities] what was said here so [Bliss] couldn't twist it and get R.T. in trouble," Richard Guinn said Sunday in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "That's why I wanted them to pass it on."

Guinn told the Star-Telegram that he did not understand why Bliss wanted to record the conversation or what he planned to do with the tape.

"I have no idea, but that's the reason I took [my tape] to the commission and I told him, in response, that I was going to take it to the commission," Guinn said. "If he tried to use that [tape] in a wrong way, they had the tape and they'd know exactly what was going on.

"I said I wasn't going to lie for him or anybody else over there. I wasn't going to cover up or anything like that."

Guinn also told that newspaper that the Baylor committee instructed him not to discuss the contents of Saturday's conversation, but he described Bliss as composed throughout the meeting. He said Bliss "kind of apologized for everything that was happening."

"I was just shocked that he wanted to come over after all that was said and done and everything," said Guinn, who had not read the transcripts of the secret tapes before he met with Bliss. "After I read the papers, I was in shock, flabbergasted, upset ... ."

Guinn told the Dallas Morning News that Bliss planned to visit another player, Harvey Thomas, a junior-college recruit who Dennehy's family claimed had threatened Dennehy. Bliss repeatedly knocked on Thomas' apartment door, Thomas' live-in fiancee, Sheena Devese, told the Morning News. But the couple refused to answer.

Devese told the paper that her fiancee was not fully apprised of all the details involving the cover-up story. Thomas refused comment when approached by the newspaper.

Kirk Watson, outside counsel involved in the inquiry into the allegations, told the Morning News that the tapes implicating Bliss in the cover-up will be forwarded to the McLennan County district attorney's office. The Star-Telegram, which heard the taped conversations, said police may seek criminal charges if the tapes show that Baylor officials or athletes were not truthful during questioning about Dennehy's disappearance.

Baylor investigator David Guinn, no relation to the Baylor player or his father, said Richard Guinn gave the taped recordings to him. David Guinn said he locked them away at Richard Guinn's request and has not yet listened to the tape.

He did, however, express concern that Bliss was trying to contact his former players.

"I made this conveyance to him that I think it's counterproductive rehashing this with youngsters on the team," David Guinn said to the Star-Telegram. "It is unsettling to young people."

Bliss tried to use the players and an assistant coach in an attempt to portray slain Baylor player Patrick Dennehy as a drug dealer.

Secretly recorded tapes of conversations between Bliss, assistant Abar Rouse and players show Bliss thought the drug story would steer investigators away from allegations the coach had improperly paid for Dennehy's tuition, an NCAA violation.

Bliss's coverup attempt was revealed Friday night when Rouse gave the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a copy of his tapes.

Bliss resigned Aug. 8 after school announced he had been involved in improper tuition payments to two players.

"What we've got to do here is create drugs," Bliss said on one of the tapes, which were recorded July 30, 31 and Aug. 1.

He wanted to portray Dennehy as a dealer who presented Baylor players with marijuana and other "exotic" drugs and carried a wad of thousands of dollars in cash.

"It's not like we created his situation," Bliss said. "We're the victims."

Bliss, a former New Mexico coach, said Dennehy couldn't deny the allegations because he was dead.

Dennehy was found shot to death on July 25. An autopsy found no alcohol, opiates, amphetamines or barbiturates in his system, but his body was too decomposed to test for marijuana.

Baylor investigators found no evidence Dennehy was involved in drug dealing.

After the cover-up was revealed, Bliss called the Guinn house early Saturday morning and asked to come over, Richard Guinn said. When he showed up with a tape recorder, Richard Guinn said he also decided to record the conversation.

Richard Guinn said Bliss remained composed during the meeting.

"`He said he was scared of what was coming out on the tapes," Richard Guinn said. Bliss didn't say why he wanted to record the conversation.

Bliss did not return a telephone message left at his home Sunday.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.




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