Ex-Cats Davender, Miller face more charges in alleged UK ticket scam

By Ashlee Clark - aclark@herald-leader.com

Criminal charges continue to accumulate against two former University of Kentucky basketball players accused of conducting ticket scams throughout the state.

The men's cases began in Fayette County and have trickled into four other counties. But to this point have not said the two worked together in the alleged scam.

Ed Davender's latest charges were filed Tuesday when he was indicted by a Harrison County grand jury on three counts of theft by deception over $300. The indictment says Davender, 43, of Georgetown created a false impression to deprive James Rose of J. Dustin Rose Insurance, Inc. of more than $300.

The indictment does not provide further details about that case, and Rose did not return calls for comment.

Derrick Miller, 42, of Lexington, was indicted Oct. 29 in Floyd County on a charge of theft by deception. According to the indictment, Miller sold an unidentified woman two 2008-09 men's basketball season tickets for $1,800 "with intent to deprive her thereof, failing to deliver said tickets and knowing that no such tickets would be available for him to sell."

Lexington attorney Stephen McFayden, who represents Davender, said he hadn't seen a copy of the indictment and couldn't comment on the charges. Miller's attorney, Steven Wides, could not be reached for comment.

Davender was initially arrested Sept. 1 on three counts of theft by deception after three people told Lexington police they gave Davender a total of $5,846 after he offered to sell them tickets for the 2009-10 season that he never gave them, according to court records. Davender was also charged with having a prescription not in the proper container and trafficking in a controlled substance within 1,000 yards of a school. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and McFayden has said that the allegations are a "big misunderstanding." That case has been sent to the Fayette County grand jury.

Miller was charged in a similar alleged ticket scam with one count of theft by deception in Lexington a week after Davender.

In addition to the Lexington charges, Miller has been charged for alleged ticket scams in Clark, Bell and Floyd counties. Miller is being held in the Clark County jail.

Both Miller and Davender worked for Kentucky Sports History at one time, and both were fired for trying to sell tickets to advertisers, president Todd Ferguson has said.

Kentucky Sports History is a season-recap book produced annually and distributed to schools. It hires former Wildcat basketball players as independent contractors to sell ads for the book.

Davender was a UK guard from 1984-88, and Miller played at UK from 1986-90. The two men were teammates during Miller's first two seasons at UK.

During his senior year at UK, Miller was captain and leading scorer for Rick Pitino's first Kentucky team. That year, Miller set the UK record he still holds for most three-point attempts in one season, with 298. He made 99 of those shots, the third-most in one season.

According to UK's basketball media guide, Miller recently earned his degree in social work thanks to the Cawood Ledford Scholarship Fund.

Davender is 11th on UK's all-time men's scoring list, with 1,637 career points and fourth in career steals with 191. He played his first season under Coach Joe B. Hall and his final three under Eddie Sutton. He was chosen in the third round of the 1988 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, but he never played in the pro league.