USC FIRES ATHLETIC TUTOR.

Byline: Scott Wolf Daily News Staff Writer

A former USC athletic department employee was officially fired Thursday as the university, completing its investigation of improprieties in the Student Athlete Academic Services office, determined he helped a Trojans football player write a paper and made racial remarks.

Christopher Cairney, the director of tutoring services placed on administrative leave last September, was fired after the university said he ``engaged in academic fraud and lied repeatedly to the investigating committee.''

It was Cairney who attracted attention last fall to allegations of academic impropriety at USC when he made several charges public in a scathing memo.

A four-member investigative committee said that it interviewed 64 people and spent the past four months writing a 61-page report, discounting all of Cairney's charges.

It found Cairney guilty of an NCAA violation when he assisted wide receiver Mike Bastianelli on a school paper. Bastianelli was suspended for two games last season over the incident.

USC's findings have been forwarded to the Pacific-10 Conference, which can either accept the conclusions of the report or conduct its own investigation.

``One of the things (Cairney) had attempted to do is portray himself as a whistle blower,'' USC interim general counsel Todd Dickey said. ``We determined he was not a whistle blower. The committee thoroughly believed he lied.''

Because Cairney went public with his charges, the university said it was taking the ``unprecedented'' step of releasing the committee's findings.

Among those findings:

A large number of USC football players receive academic assistance in the SAAS office - not because they are football players but because the program contains more academically at-risk students than any other sport.

Athletes are not guided into easy courses.

There was no pattern of academic fraud involving SAAS employees.

Cairney and another accuser, tutor/supervisor Noel Looney, were not credible based on their words and actions.

The university also released information that Cairney had been accused by co-workers of making racial slurs and had ``derisively mimicked the speech of African-American student-athletes.'' Cairney denied making racial remarks.

Although it often seemed during the investigation that a gray area existed regarding several allegations, the committee consistently sided against Cairney.

For example, it said in its report that Cairney improperly assisted Bastianelli on a paper. But last fall, Bastianelli said he mistakenly trusted athletic department employees, who were more concerned that he admit wrongdoing in order to punish Cairney.

``I thought it was something little,'' Bastianelli said. ``That's how they approached me. I shouldn't have trusted (them).''

Cairney said he will file a lawsuit against the university for wrongful termination. But he was also relieved Thursday that his status has been resolved.

``They did a number on me. I think they must have wanted me out of there pretty bad,'' Cairney said. ``(Athletic director) Mike Garrett has fired better people than me. I'm just glad to be out from under their thumb. I feel like I got out of prison.''

Cairney has long maintained having a feud with Janice Henry, a controversial student services adviser who was at the center of a Pac-10 investigation into academic impropriety at USC two years ago.

Cairney said Henry was one of the employees who accused him of making racial slurs. He believes she contributed to his removal as director of tutoring services.

He also accused her of providing improper assistance to athletes. The committee, however, exonerated Henry of any wrongdoing.

Among Looney's most-publicized charges was that a tutor had written a paper for wide receiver R. Jay Soward. But the committee said it found no evidence of wrongdoing regarding Soward.

Dickey said the committee lost trust in Cairney because he backdated a memsuo containing most of his claims to shore up his charges. Cairney disputed the claim, saying he simply failed to change the date when he revised parts of the memo.

During the course of the investigation, USC said it uncovered a second NCAA violation involving a tutor helping an athlete write a paper. The woman athlete has since left USC and the tutor was fired.