Ten students at Robertsdale High School will be permitted to suit up for tonight’s football game against Daphne while they await a ruling next week in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association came to the hearing hoping to dissolve a temporary restraining order Judge George Griffin granted last week allowing the students to play while the case progresses. Joe Espy of the Espy Law Firm, which is representing the AHSAA in the case, said the real damage is being done to the remaining Robertsdale players.
“These 10 care less about those other 50 on the team,” Espy said. “That’s what breaks my heart.”
Christine Hernandez, the attorney representing the players, frustrated the AHSAA’s efforts by insisting on making full use of the hearing to question witnesses. Hernandez called Robertsdale principal William Shay White to the stand and spent two hours thoroughly dissecting the exhibits previously provided in the case, leading the Espys to claim that Hernandez was effectively filibustering so the hearing would have to carry over to the next week.
Those concerns came true, with Griffin setting Tuesday, October 6, for continued proceedings and warning that he will issue a ruling and will not tolerate the hearing extending to additional days.
The AHSAA argues that it is within its rights to declare the players ineligible because Robertsdale officials refused to provide certain phone records requested as part of an investigation into potential recruiting violations at the school. Specifically, the AHSAA is seeking players’ phone numbers to cross-reference against coaches’ phone records from the spring to determine whether any violations occurred.
Hernandez said the defense is willing to cooperate with those requests but would need up to three weeks, depending on exactly which records the AHSAA is seeking.
“If all of you would just sit down and talk, you cold probably work a lot of this out before you get in front of me,” Griffin said.
Despite some apparent potential agreement on providing those records, Hernandez insisted that the restraining order remain in place.
Tensions often boiled over during the hearing, which lasted 3 1/2 hours, with the Espys taking exception to some unorthodox moves by Hernandez, including attempts to call both Bill and Joe Espy to the witness stand to clarify exhibits. An exchange between Espy and opposing attorney Patrick Dungan at the end of the hearing led to Dungan hurling an expletive at Espy before angrily storming out of the courtroom, only to have Griffin call him back in and reprimand him. Dungan said he simply responded to a similar sentiment from Espy.
Some of the tension carried over from last week, when attorney Michael Kidd succeeded in filing the restraining order in a manner that left AHSAA representatives in the dark. The Espys argue that the filing and several other moves have violated the rules of civil procedure.
