Columnist Dean Juipe: No surprise as Cavagnaro gets off easy

IT WAS NICE, it was neat and it was tidy. No press conference. No questions or answers. No independence in a supposedly independent investigation.

To the surprise of no one who has spent any amount of time around UNLV, the school exonerated athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro and did it in a manner designed to attract as little attention as possible.

As in Friday afternoon, by fax, with both Cavagnaro and school president Carol Harter out of reach.

Their press release said precisely what was predicted in this space a couple weeks ago: That Cavagnaro may have uttered insensitive remarks unbecoming a man in his position, but, if he did, he apologizes and there will be no repercussions.

The timing was more than coincidental, what with this newspaper's staff off until Sunday and UNLV feeling a need to terminate the Cavagnaro issue as quickly as possible now that the story has gone national. With Sports Illustrated latching on to it, the school rushed to douse a fire that had the potential to rage out of control.

(Whether by coincidence or design, UNLV appears to have become adept at timing its worst news for Friday afternoons. Football suspensions, basketball suspensions, you name it ... if it's a subject with a chance of blemishing the university's image it's a good bet the official word will come down on a Friday.)

Here's the real crux of the matter with Cavagnaro: His accusers -- and it's known there was more than one -- didn't have the nerve to step forward in public. That's it right there. If the fellow who appeared in a shadow box on TV and just buried Cavagnaro with accusations had a little more courage, Harter wouldn't have been able to dismiss this quite so easily. Likewise any and everyone else who willingly whispered what they heard -- yet wouldn't say so for the record -- did nothing to bring the truth forward.

There's no point whining about it. Whatever their reasoning, the people who drove this story -- and it wasn't the media, despite what basketball coach Bill Bayno might say -- did so under the cover of secrecy and they're the ones ultimately responsible for the way the inquiry played out. They simply came up short in the backbone department.

Notice a little something going on between the lines not only here but in Harter's press release: Even in Cavagnaro's whitewashing there's an implication of impropriety if not outright guilt. Everyone seems to agree he must have said one or two or three things he shouldn't have, although he has been cleared because the context of those remarks wasn't proven to be malicious.

Of course when the supposedly independent investigator is anything but independent and the school refuses to release his taped findings, how can anyone be sure what kind of testimony was given?

So it's down to this: Unless someone with pertinent information steps forward real soon, like today, it's case closed. Failing that unlikely event, the school succeeded at manipulating the findings of a concocted investigation to suit its president's whims.

Those inclined to protest are not apt to be heard.

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