There are two sides to every story. Today Magistrate Scott Davis, of Oldham County, Kentucky, took the opportunity to tell his side of a story. As most you know Davis has been accused of failing to deliver Kentucky Derby tickets to people who purchased them from his company, Derby Deals.com. Actually, several news reports have stated that what he did was a “scam.” It has been stated that Davis’ company delivered over 800 tickets to customers – he did not take their money. If Davis were running a scam why would he have delivered tickets to any of his customers? Not one reporter has asked that question. Davis nor his company have had any charges, criminal or civil filed against them.
On Friday, May 7, 2010, DerbyDeals.com filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court in Louisville, KY alleging that Steve Masiello, an assistant basketball coach with the University of Louisville men’s basketball program had agreed to purchase Kentucky Derby tickets for Davis’ company. Davis alleges that he gave Masiello $70,000 to purchase tickets for him but that Masiello did not supply him with all of the tickets that he was supposed to and only returned $10,000 of his money. In the complaint Davis alleges that Masiello claimed to him that he could use connections that he had, including Coach Rick Pitino, to obtain Derby tickets for him.
Davis has stated that he has refunded most of the money to the people that did not receive the tickets that they were supposed to receive and that he is in the process of returning the remainder of the funds.
In the lawsuit Davis is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Masiello. Davis also alleges that Masiello had an accomplice known to him also by the name “Steve.” However, Davis does not appear to be seeking any damages from him as he alleges that he was dealing with Masiello. The entire lawsuit can be viewed by clicking here.
I attempted to contact Steve Masiello on May 5, 2010 regarding this entire incident. However, he did not return my calls but Attorney Larry Wilder did call me and stated that he represented Masiello. He stated that the allegations made by Davis were not true. However, when I tried to ask Wilder other questions he hung up the phone. For the record, Wilder is the attorney who was found asleep in a trash can after police had been called by neighbors when a man was seen asleep in a trash can. The incident took place in Jeffersonville, IN. At the time of that incident Wilder was a city attorney for the city of Jeffersonville, IN. He was not cited for the incident.
The timing of this entire incident is not good for any of the parties involved. Scott Davis is seeking re-election to his Magistrate seat in Oldham County, Kentucky and as the world knows, the University of Louisville basketball program has already received enough bad publicity due to Coach Rick Pitino’s involvement with Karen Sypher. In addition to all of that Samardo Samuels’ mother has stated that he will not return for his junior year and that he will enter the NBA draft. What else could happen?