MINNEAPOLIS -- Former University of Minnesota basketball player Mark Hall says he is willing to pay the school for $800 in long distance telephone bills he allegedly made and billed to as many as 20 university telephone numbers.
Hall also said Monday the university has cleared him of a plagiarism charge, the Minneapolis Tribune reported today. Details of that charge have not been made public, but Hall said earlier the incident involved a university football player no longer in school.
An investigation of the long distance telephone bills began last November when a university administrator reported discrepancies in phone calls charged to her bio-chemistry department.
Hall and his apartment were searched by University of Minnesota police Feb. 16 as part of the investigation.
An affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court said police found calls had been made to nine numbers in four cities and charged to 20 university numbers. One of the numbers belonged to Hall's mother in Springfield, Mass., and two others involved a Hall friend.
The affidavit stated a majority of the calls were made from a dormitory room in Middlebrook Hall that was rented to Hall from July 6, 1981, until Sept. 13 of last year.
Hall has not admitted to making the calls and billing them to the university, but has agreed to pay back the school.
A judgment has been entered in Hennepin County Conciliation Court against Hall for $969 for telephone bills -- not included among those billed to the university -- accumulated up to May 27, 1981. He said Monday he hopes to work something out with Northwestern Bell to settle the bill for calls he made from his apartment.
The trouble-plagued senior quit the university basketball team shortly before the end of the regular season. He has, however, remained in school.
He had played only sporadically after being ruled eligible to play when U.S. District Judge Miles Lord issued a temporary injunction allowing him to enroll in a degree-granting program. Hall earlier filed a lawsuit against the university after it declared him ineligible for this season.
Quitting the basketball team 'hurt a lot,' Hall said Monday, 'now that the Gophers have won the Big Ten title and will play in the NCAA.'
