Basketball star faces fraud trial
FORMER basketball star Shane “Hammer” Heal will face a trial for allegedly defrauding NBA coach Brett Brown of $750,000.
The case against Heal was sent to a District Court trial after a hearing before Magistrate Jacqueline Payne in Brisbane yesterday.
Outside court, Heal, 46, said he was disappointed. “I look forward to being able to get on the stand and really let the truth come out,” he said.
Ms Payne pushed ahead on all three charges, but said one charge involving a coffee shop was a “very weak” case.
The charges are based on money Brown, coach of the Philadelphia 76ers and a former friend, had lent to Heal’s ventures. Lawyers for Heal had argued the former basketballer, who played for the Brisbane Bullets and eventually in the top US NBA league in the 1990s and 2000s, had done nothing wrong.
His lawyer Peter Davis said the prosecution case was flawed because the things Heal had promised Brown were done eventually. But the prosecution said it did not accept the amount of money borrowed from Brown was the same amount required for each item.