Crime pays
By 
Well it does if you’re Ken Starr:
Patrick Dennehy was a junior forward who transferred to Baylor University following his sophomore season at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2001–2002.[1] In the summer of 2003, Dennehy and his new teammate Carlton Dotson indicated that they were concerned about their safety. After both men failed to attend a party, there were indications that something had gone wrong when Dennehy’s family had not heard from him and Dennehy’s roommate returned home to find that his dog had not been fed. On June 25, Dennehy’s car was found in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with its license plates removed.[2]
An affidavit filed on June 23, which was unsealed on June 30, which sought a search warrant for Dennehy’s computer reported that an informant in Delaware told police that Dotson, who was by now at home in Hurlock, Maryland, told a cousin that he had shot and killed Dennehy during an argument while firing guns in the Waco, Texas area. On July 21, Dotson was charged with Dennehy’s murder and taken into custody in Maryland. On July 26, a badly decomposed body was found in a gravel pit near Waco and was later identified as Dennehy.[2] On July 30, his death was ruled a homicide, and on August 7, a memorial service was held for Dennehy in San Jose, California.[3]
Following a stint in which Dotson’s competency to stand trial was in question, he pleaded guilty to the murder on June 8, 2005, and was sentenced a week later to 35 years in prison.[4] Dotson is currently an inmate of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice[5] and will be eligible for parole after he has served about half of his sentence.[4] . . .
On August 16, the Star-Telegram reported that [head basketball coach Dave] Bliss had told players to lie to investigators by indicating that Dennehy had paid for his tuition by dealing drugs. These conversations were taped on microcassette by assistant coach Abar Rouse from July 30 to August 1. On the tapes, Bliss was heard instructing players to fabricate the story of Dennehy being a drug dealer to Baylor investigators and also said that talking to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department would give him the opportunity to “practice” his story. The tapes also showed that Bliss and his staff knew that Dennehy had been threatened by two of their teammates when they publicly denied such knowledge. Rouse taped the conversations after Bliss threatened to fire him if he did not go along with the scheme.[10] The revelations shocked Baylor and the college basketball community. However, despite the potential allegations of extortion, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, no criminal charges were filed against Bliss.
The Baylor University sexual assault scandal was the result of numerous allegations of and convictions for sexual and non-sexual assaults committed by Baylor University students, mostly players in the Baylor Bears football team, during the early-to-mid 2010s. In 2016, Baylor’s football team came under fire when it was revealed university officials had failed to take action regarding the alleged rapes and assaults. The scandal led to the ouster of head football coach Art Briles, the demotion and eventual resignation of Baylor president Ken Starr, the resignation of athletic director Ian McCaw, and the firing of two others connected with the football program.[1] It also led to the resignation of Baylor’s Title IX Coordinator, Patty Crawford. Plaintiff’s attorney Jim Dunnam accused Baylor of implementing a ″concerted strategy to get the public to believe this is entirely and only a football-related problem”[2]
Starr served as president of Baylor University in Waco until stepping down in 2016 amid anger over how the school handled a number of sexual assault cases. He received $5 million that year, including base pay of $338,174 and nontaxable pay of $42,613, according to the Chronicle. Starr is now of counsel in the Houston office of The Lanier Law Firm PC.
The bulk of Starr’s compensation was attributed to “other pay,” which can account for miscellaneous pay and benefits, including severance, tax gross-ups, cashed out vacation leave, debt forgiveness, fellowships, employer-provided vehicles and parking, housing payments, travel, meals, moving expenses, entertainment, spending accounts, club dues and other awards. As reported by Reuters, he earned $4.5 million in severance that year. Baylor told Houston Public Media that a portion of his compensation was to buy out his tenured faculty position at Baylor Law School.
The most emetic moment of the entire Trump administration was when Ken Starr vouched for the unquestionable integritude of Bill Barr on the nation’s most prestigious op-ed page.
BTW great job by Jim Nantz tonight talking about how Baylor basketball “rose from the ashes” without ever mentioning any details about the actual fire.
One shining moment indeed.