Ollie suing Miller
Kevin Ollie is suing his former associate head coach, Glen Miller, for slander, saying Miller’s claim that Ollie paid the mother of a former player $30,000 is false.
In a complaint filed in Hartford Superior Court by Ollie’s attorney Jacque J. Parenteau on Monday, Ollie and Stephanie Garrett, the mother of a UConn player formerly coached by Ollie, have filed suit against Miller and his wife, Yvonne, for making false statements in an interview with NCAA officials. The suit claims Miller made the statements to get back at Ollie for firing Miller at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season.
Miller, according to the motion filed on April 22, made false statements when he told NCAA investigators that Garrett told Yvonne Miller that Ollie had provided “in the neighborhood ... of $30,000 to make the move from (redacted) to Connecticut.”
Miller claimed that Ollie paid Garrett the money in cash at the Nathan Hale hotel on UConn’s campus. Garrett is the mother of Shonn Miller, who played at UConn in 2015-16 as a grad transfer from Cornell.
According to the complaint, Miller stated to at least one other person after he was fired in March, 2017 that he would get revenge on Ollie, whom he referred to with an expletive.
“I was three years away from retiring,” the suit claims Miller said. “He has ruined my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t
even get a job on campus. I’m going to get him.”
Interestingly, Miller’s accusation didn’t appear in UConn athletic director David Benedict’s letter claiming “just cause” for firing Ollie, or in the NCAA’s notice of allegations issues to UConn.
“Glen Miller is the University of Connecticut’s star witness,” Parenteau told Hearst Connecticut Media. “And he was motivated to get Kevin Ollie.”
According to sources, an NCAA hearing on the infractions that cost Ollie his job and precipitated a battle for the nearly $11 million left on his contract is slated for Thursday. UConn has already self-imposed several penalties, including a scholarship reduction for next season.
“I think it’s a transparent attempt to intimidate a witness right before the NCAA hearing, and we’re going to defend it vigorously,” said Glen Miller’s attorney, Drzislav Coric, of the New London-based Traystman & Coric, LLC. “Unlike the NCAA and UConn, who don’t have subpoena powers, I do have subpoena powers. So, we will be subpoenaing financial information to make the inquiry into what occurred. We expect it will exonerate Glen.”
Miller’s team would presumably be seeking financial records of both Ollie and Garrett.
The complaint also noted that Yvonne Miller “falsely” made the same statements to NCAA investigators. It also claims that UConn’s release of more than 1,355 pages of documents, including Glen Miller’s NCAA testimony, to the media in response to Freedom of Information Act requests violated Ollie’s rights of privacy.
Ollie is seeking compensatory economic and noneconomic damages, including emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life and harm to reputation. The amount Ollie is seeking is “more than $15,000,” according to the suit. It will likely be a far greater amount than that.
Meanwhile, Ollie’s battle to recoup the nearly $11 million left on his contract at the time of his firing continues to move — slowly. Depositions people related to the case who live out-of-state, including Hall of Famer Ray Allen, will likely be sent out soon.