Eric Bledsoe relative, friend say they paid rent, not prep coach

Eric Bledsoe relative, friend say they paid rent, not prep coach


Jon Solomon -- The Birmingham News Jon Solomon -- The Birmingham News

A relative of Eric Bledsoe and a family friend claim they paid the basketball player's rent while he lived in the Parker High School attendance zone, not Maurice Ford, Parker's coach at the time.
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Billy Fagnes, who is a first cousin to Bledsoe's mother, Maureen Reddick, said his family paid most of the rent on the house where Reddick and Bledsoe lived during his senior year at Parker. Also, Jerome McMullin, who described himself as a close family friend, said that although Ford found the family an affordable home, McMullin helped the family pay the rent during some difficult financial times. Ford did not pay any rent, McMullin said.

According to the Alabama High School Athletic Association, a high school coach who pays for a player's rent would violate its recruiting and amateur rules. By moving to the house at Center Street South, Bledsoe was eligible to play for Parker as a senior. Ford denied paying any money.

In late May, The New York Times quoted landlord Brenda Axle as saying she never received any money from Reddick or Bledsoe and that Ford paid the rent three or four times in cash, usually when Axle was at Parker as a volunteer worker. Axle disputes The Times' reporting of her account.

Axle told The Birmingham News that Ford gave her cash a couple of times but she always assumed the money came from Reddick. Her lease was with Reddick, Axle said, and she never wrote a receipt in Ford's name.

Axle said receiving the money occasionally from Ford -- she declined to estimate a number of times in case she was wrong -- provided an easy way to collect Reddick's rent because Axle frequently worked at Parker.

Axle said she recently offered the same account to the AHSAA, which has been reviewing Bledsoe's eligibility since questions surfaced in May.
MauriceFord-0707.jpgMaurice Ford was Eric Bledsoe's coach at Parker High School. (The Birmingham News / Hal Yeager)

McMullin, who said he knows Ford well, said Ford found the family a house it could afford in the Parker attendance zone. But Ford did not pay any rent, according to McMullin.

"They went through some hard times and I helped them pay their rent," said McMullin, adding that he paid a total of about three months of rent. "I took them to get food for them. There's a lot of things they didn't have and people stepped up to the plate and helped out. I never asked for anything or any kind of favor. I did it out of the goodness of my heart. Maurice didn't do anything."

Axle said she is not familiar with McMullin's name, adding he could have provided money directly to Reddick for the rent.

Fagnes also said Ford never paid rent for Bledsoe, who starred for one season at the University of Kentucky and was a first-round NBA Draft pick on June 24.

"It was me and my family who paid it," Fagnes said. "One time, I gave the rent money to Maurice Ford because the landlady was running late and I'm a contractor and had to get to work. So I gave it to Maurice Ford to give to her."

Axle said that in one instance, she had not received rent money so her son suggested calling Fagnes, who once worked at Parker as a girls basketball coach. "Billy said he'd make sure I get the rent," Axle recalled. "Billy's number is still in my cell phone."

Fagnes said he brought Bledsoe to Parker and disputes any claims that Ford recruited the player.

"The story that Maurice Ford recruited Bledsoe to Parker -- that's wrong. He didn't even know he was coming to Parker."

Former Parker Principal Joseph Martin said he and Ford did not know Bledsoe was at Parker until a couple of days after Fagnes enrolled Bledsoe as a junior. Bledsoe has said that after leaving Hayes High during his junior year, he attended Central Park Christian for a day before his mother pulled him out for an unspecified reason.

McMullin said the Bledsoe family's two-bedroom house had problems, such as a leaky roof. Reddick slept on the couch, McMullin said.

McMullin got to know the Bledsoe family, he said, after his son, who plays basketball at Parker, became friends with Bledsoe. Eventually, McMullin said, the families became so close that he drove Bledsoe to and from school, took him to his ACT exam and brought him to get his driver's license.

Ford declined to comment for this article. Reginald McDaniel, his lawyer, noted Ford's previous denial about paying any rent. "Maurice was not involved in recruiting or paying rent for Eric."

Axle said she has never received the remaining rent amount she claims she is owed after Reddick left the house in May 2009. The New York Times quoted Axle as saying that Reddick told her Ford should have paid the remaining rent amount.

"No, I told (The New York Times) that Maureen told me she was going to get to the bottom of it," Axle said.

She estimated the amount at more than $2,000, but said she never wanted to seek legal recourse.

"I felt maybe I was helping Eric because he was a fine young man," she said. "I'll count it as a loss."

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