MAURICE CLARETT Judge will decide on evidence release
The prosecution has no case without it against the suspended OSU running back.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The criminal case against Maurice Clarett would be crippled if a judge decides to bar evidence collected from a separate NCAA probe of the suspended Ohio State running back, prosecutors say.
Judge Steven Hayes on Monday postponed Clarett's preliminary hearing on allegations he lied on a theft report so that he can decide on Clarett's request to block information from the NCAA investigation.
"If the evidence is suppressed, it would be difficult for us to proceed," city Prosecutor Stephen McIntosh said. He added that there were other legal options but wouldn't elaborate.
McIntosh said Clarett's taped statements to NCAA investigators amount to an admission to the misdemeanor falsification charge.
"It's rare that we get a statement that we believe is an admission," McIntosh said.
Clarett is accused of filing a campus police report that exaggerated the value of items stolen from a car he borrowed in April. His attorneys argue the NCAA information should have been kept private as a federally protected "student educational record."
Son of famed OSU coach
Hayes, son of former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, will decide by a hearing scheduled for Dec. 17 whether to grant the request.
Clarett, dressed in a black suit, sat quietly in the back of the courtroom. Neither Clarett nor his attorney, Percy Squire, spoke in court and did not answer reporters' questions afterward.
According to the request to suppress the NCAA information, Clarett was asked about the theft during an interview with the university and NCAA investigators.
University officials gave information from the interviews to campus police who passed it on to prosecutors.
"I don't believe they did anything improper in disclosing the information and ultimately using it to file criminal charges," McIntosh said.
OSU lawyers argue
Ohio State lawyers have said the information was not a "student disciplinary record" so Clarett's privacy rights were not violated, according to court documents.
Clarett has pleaded innocent to the charge that carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and $1,000 fine.
Clarett was suspended for his sophomore season for NCAA violations of accepting money from a family friend and lying about it to investigators. He is separately suing the NFL, asking a federal judge in New York to throw out a rule that prevents him from entering the draft until he has been out of high school for three years.