Bush Gags on Court Rulings

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

After having moved forward at near glacial pace for several months, today brings us some interesting developments in the Bushgate affair.  First off, a San Diego judge has set both trial and deposition dates:

A March 13 trial date has been set in Lloyd Lake's suit against former USC running back Reggie Bush.

After much acrimony between both sides in the case, a frustrated San Diego Superior Court judge Friday also finally got both sides to agree on the case's most explosive issue so far: dates when Lake and Bush are to answer questions under oath in pretrial depositions.

Judge Joan M. Lewis ordered June 5-6 deposition dates for Lake, June 23 for Bush and June 27 and 30 for Bush's parents.

More importantly, aside from dealing with the litigants scheduling squabbling, the judge also denied a request by Bush's lawyers to keep any deposition transcripts out of the hands of the public (and NCAA):
Lewis denied a request by Bush's attorneys for a protective order that would prevent Lake and his attorney, Brian Watkins, from giving any deposition transcripts to the NCAA or the media. Such transcripts would be valuable to the NCAA because Bush and his parents would be asked about the allegations in the depositions. So far, the Bush family has not cooperated with the NCAA in its investigation. The guys at Yahoo report the strained reasoning of Bush's (four) lawyers for seeking the gag order: Bush's four attorneys, including Cornwell and Los Angeles-based attorney Patricia Glazer, argued in court Friday for the confidentiality motion. They do not believe that information from the depositions should be available to a third party, such as the NCAA or the media.
"I happen to believe court actions are brought for court actions," Glazer said. "If that's the reason they brought it, we're going to deal with that on the merits. We're not in favor of using one forum for the benefit of another forum, or one forum for the benefit of the press." That's just funny.  The lawyers here on BN can tell you how much of a long shot this motion for protective order was, and how silly Bush's lawyers sound.  "Please, don't let this become public because, er, uh .... it would really suck."

The other tidbit from the Yahoo story is that the judge apparently wants the case to move along, and that Lake has agreed not to take the Fifth:

Lewis ordered that discovery be completed by May 23. Watkins said Lake would not ask for Fifth Amendment protection in discovery. Oh, and how delicious it will be to watch this unfold.  Assuming, of course, that Bush doesn't buy Lake's silence, I'd love to see discovery unfold.  And, who might have to testify?  Per the LAT: USC Coach Pete Carroll and one of his assistants could find themselves summoned into the courtroom as part of the contentious civil lawsuit involving Reggie Bush, an attorney in the case said today.

A would-be sports marketing agent, Lloyd Lake, has claimed that he gave Bush cash and gifts while the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner was playing college football. Lake's attorney, Brian Watkins, said Carroll and running back coach Todd McNair could play a role in his trial strategy."Both Pete Carroll and Todd McNair are most likely going to be witnesses," Watkins said by telephone after a morning court hearing in San Diego. "I can't talk about what we're going to be asking them."

We'll see how this unfolds, but at least things are moving again.  

GO BRUINS.