Former Alabama booster loses bid for new slander trial

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (AP) -- A former University of Alabama football booster has lost his bid for a new trial of his suit accusing the NCAA of slander.

Jackson County Circuit Judge John Graham sided with a fellow judge who ruled that Scottsboro businessman Ray Keller was not entitled to a new trial.

Jurors in Keller's hometown had awarded him $5 million at the conclusion of a trial in 2007. But retired Circuit Judge William Gordon, who took over the case near its end after the trial judge fell ill, threw out the verdict, ruling it was awarded "as a result of passion or prejudice."

Keller's lawyers appealed that decision to the Alabama Supreme Court, but later withdrew the appeal, instead seeking a new trial. His attorneys said a new trial could produce an even bigger verdict.

But Graham ruled Friday that Gordon's ruling did not entitle Keller to a new trial. The judge said only a reversal by the Alabama Supreme Court could lead to a new trial, and that option was eliminated when the appeal was withdrawn.

"It's a shame it ended up like this," Keller's attorney, Don Word, told The Daily Sentinel, which reported the ruling Monday. "We feel like Ray was vindicated by a jury of his peers. We feel like the 12 folks who sat for four weeks listening to the evidence got it right."

Word declined to comment on the case Monday. A spokesman for the NCAA did not immediately return a call for comment.

Keller sued the NCAA in 2004, arguing that the sanctioning organization slandered and libeled him in 2002 when it announced penalties against the Crimson Tide. The suit said he and other then-boosters were referred to as "parasites," "pariahs" and "rogue boosters."

The NCAA said it never publicly identified Keller.

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