The University of Cincinnati is paying $380 an hour to conduct an investigation into fired men's basketball coach John Brannen.
Bond, Schoeneck & King, the law firm representing the university, has been appointed Special Counsel to conduct the investigation with a budget of $49,000 that is scheduled to end at the end of the month, according to documents obtained by The Enquirer through Ohio's Open Records Act.
The investigation will end June 30 "unless terminated earlier by the Attorney General or renewed by the Attorney General at the conclusion of the fiscal year," according to the documents.
Kelly A. M. Woods, the deputy director of outside counsel for the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, told The Enquirer on Thursday that outside counsel for similar cases is usually assigned through the end of the fiscal year. Fiscal Year 2021 runs from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021.
Woods would neither confirm nor deny that Special Counsel's investigation into Brannen is still ongoing.
Brannen, who was fired April 9 after just two seasons as UC head coach, filed a lawsuit May 21 against the university, UC Director of Athletics John Cunningham and UC President Neville G. Pinto, seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and the more than $5 million buyout he says he's due. He also is asking for a jury trial.
More:Fired coach John Brannen sues the University of Cincinnati. Here's what's in the filing.
The university has yet to respond to Brannen's lawsuit. It has until Aug. 6.
Cunningham's decision to terminate Brannen came two weeks after Cunningham announced the university was using "independent fact finders" to review unspecified allegations related to Brannen and the men's basketball program after six of Brannen's players entered the transfer portal.
Two of the players, sophomore guards Mike Saunders Jr. and Mason Madsen, have since elected to return to Cincinnati to play for newly hired head coach Wes Miller. Cunningham officially hired Miller from UNC Greensboro on April 15.
More:'It's been an absolute whirlwind': Wes Miller settling in as UC Bearcats basketball coach
Neither Cunningham nor representatives from UC's Office of General Counsel responded Thursday to requests for an update on the investigation.
UC's Office of General Counsel provides "advice and counsel to UC as an institution, its Board of Trustees, and its officers, employees and agents when acting on behalf of the university, on all matters having legal significance to the institution," according to the university's website.
What John Brannen's lawsuit claims
Brannen's lawsuit claims "during the course of purportedly investigating, suspending, and terminating Coach Brannen 'for cause,' Defendants deprived him of his constitutionally protected procedural and substantive due process rights."
The 66-page suit says Brannen's suspension with pay, which began April 3, and his subsequent termination were the "result of a sham 'investigation' that was unfair, unreliable and inherently flawed and nothing more than a smokescreen to avoid triggering a contractual buyout clause that would have cost the University millions of dollars."
UC hired Brannen in April 2019, eight months before Cunningham took over as Cincinnati's athletic director. Brannen spent the previous four seasons at Northern Kentucky University.
The Bearcats went 32-21 in Brannen's two seasons. Cincinnati finished 12-11 last season and failed to advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010.
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