Alleged Manti Te'o hoaxer may speak out

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o

LANCASTER, Calif. The person cast as the mastermind of the hoax involving Notre Dame's Manti Te'o may tell his side of the story, a family member said Sunday.

Peter Navy Tuiasosopo, uncle of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, says the family plans to hold a meeting this week to determine when and how his nephew would talk about the bizarre prank.

"We want to do it right," he said, also noting that the family has hired an attorney. He never directly mentioned the hoax or his nephew being involved.

13 Photos

Manti Te'o

Play Video

The confusing story of Manti Te'o

Play Video

Te'o insisted he had no role in the hoax involving his "dead" girlfriend and told ESPN on Friday night that he was duped by a person who has since apologized to him.

In an off-camera interview, Te'o identified that person as Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a 22-year-old acquaintance who lives in California. He said the young man contacted him soon after Deadpsin.com broke the news on Wednesday. The Deadspin story indicated Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was involved, and suggested Te'o was, too.

"We're just a family of faith. The family is holding up well," Peter Navy Tuiasosopo said. "They're holding up the way I would expect a family to. This is a storm."

He made the comments after attending a two-hour service at the Oasis Christian Church, where his brother, who is Ronaiah's father, is pastor.

Titus Tuiasosopo, the father, choked up as he thanked people for their prayers.

"I've been practicing how to say `no comment' in 20 languages," the pastor told his congregation. The family has not commented publicly since news of the hoax broke.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo wasn't seen in attendance, and two church members said he was not there.

Earlier in the day, ABC news announced that Te'o would do his first television interview with Katie Couric. The interview will air Thursday on Couric's daytime talk show and Te'o's parents will be with him. ABC was not releasing details of when the interview would take place or where.

• Te'o provides answers, but more may be asked
• Te'o to hoax doubters: "I wasn't part of this"
• Notre Dame pushing Te'o to address hoax publicly

Also, in a story published in Sunday's South Bend Tribune, a Notre Dame spokesman said the university decided against disclosing the hoax before the Irish played Alabama in the BCS championship game on Jan. 7 because it wasn't in the best interest of the teams.

University spokesman Dennis Brown said some school administrators thought they should release what they knew about the hoax when they became aware of it. Te'o went to coaches and school officials with his story on Dec. 26. The school commissioned an investigation that it says confirmed Te'o was not involved. Investigators gave their findings to the school on Jan. 4.

The university officials said the investigators did not examine cellphone records, emails or other electronic communication to determine the length or extent of Te'o's communication over the past few years with the person claiming to be Lennay Kekua, nor did the university ask Te'o to take a lie detector test.

The school informed Te'o's parents about the investigation results on Jan. 5.

[TimeToRetire]

The most overrated linebacker in college football. I have watched highlight reels of him over and over, and all I saw was diving interceptions twenty yards downfield. That's fine, but that is not what middle linebackers are hired to do. I don't see him roughing up running backs at the line. I don't see him sacking quarterbacks. Maybe that's because he never does it.

[byten12]

Think about what ND has admitted to: they conspired with Manti Te'o to continue the lie during the media/press run-up to the BCS Championship. ND officials stood side by side with Manti as he continued to discuss the "dead girlfreind inspiration" duting those interviews. This is insane.

[byten12]

This was not a real investigation; this was ND hiring a damage control firm to minimize the impact of this scandal as it reflects on ND, the institution.

[jnostromo]

Book Deal on the way

[twmat311]

Find it on a bargain-book table near you. $3.98 maybe?

[no1blonde]

Be done with this ridicules charade. It is not worth the energy and money spent. If Manti wishes to pursue charges for being nieve, then so be it. But it is all hooey as far as I am concerned.

[rdm1046]

Please,just drop this whole uninteresting subject and focus on real news.

[samnitrile]

The Tuiasosopo family needs to humble themselves. Roniah seems to take no accountability. The remarks from family when finding out that he was the one...were laughs. Outrageous to screw someone over and think it's funny. He messed with Teo' s mind while his family were grieving, right before big games, and to right before the Heisman awards. Seriously what jerk would do something so cruel? To me Teo deserves so much more credit. It's so sad that Teo has to constantly try to convince the public, because Roniah and his family won't make
the right choice and admit Roniah screwed up.The Tuiasosopo family needs to humble themselves. Roniah seems to take no accountability. The remarks from family when finding out that he was the one...were laughs. Outrageous to screw someone over and think it's funny. He messed with Teo' s mind while his family were grieving, right before big games, and to right before the Heisman awards. Seriously what jerk would do something so cruel? To me Teo deserves so much more credit. It's so sad that Teo has to constantly try to convince the public, because Roniah and his family won't make
the right choice and admit Roniah screwed up.

[WhereisOT]

Meanwhile, in the real America..
So called "news" must be not news....
Highly overpaid "heros" are falling like flies..
Liars are encouraged to lie...

The dumbing down continues...

[MittHowell]

Who cares?

[Wingsfan1983]

It is sad that we has a society have become so captivated with a non story. Media has placed numerous celebs on a pedestal and the rest of society has to watch.

It is the 99 percent again that is ignored.