Clemons Says He Was Paid By MU Assistants

Former Missouri Basketball player Ricky Clemons says assistant coaches Tony Harvey and Lane Odom paid him last season. He also alleges that his former girlfriend, Jessica Bunge, took checks to the bank for him. The comments were made during phone conversations at the Boone County Jail this summer, where he was serving a sentence for falsely imprisoning Bunge in January. Clemons referenced former Georgia basketball player Tony Cole, by saying what he got at Mizzou was “bigger than Tony Cole.” Cole admitted to receiving hundreds of dollars and was the whistle-blower in the Georgia scandal last season. Clemons also says that his attorney, Wally Bley, instructed him to deny receiving money when asked. Seniors Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson also got money according to Clemons, saying, “When I first got here, they did, they did everybody. I mean, they do A.J. and Rickey. If they need money, they’d go to Harvey. He, he’d get it for ’em.” That particular conversation was with Amy Stewart, wife of MU Associate Athletic Director Ed Stewart. The Columbia Daily Tribune and St. Louis Post-Dispatch obtained copies of the recordings. The tapes became available after the FBI concluded an investigation on whether or not a witness was being tampered with during Clemons trial. They found nothing in that investigation.