A judge in Columbus yesterday dismissed the lawsuit that led to the firing of Ohio State basketball coach Jim O'Brien and the ongoing NCAA investigation into the Buckeyes' basketball program.

Former Columbus-area resident Kathleen Salyers had sued Dan and Kim Roslovic, for whom she had provided babysitting and cleaning services, claiming they reneged on a verbal agreement to pay her $1,000 a month plus reimburse expenses if she would provide for former Ohio State player Slobodan "Boban" Savovic during his career with the Buckeyes.

Salyers and other witnesses testified that she supported Savovic throughout his 1998-2002 career, often housing him several nights a week. She claimed to have spent over $100,000 on food, clothing, cell phone bills, airline tickets and weekly spending money for the player, causing her to go into debt and take out a second mortgage when the Roslovics failed to compensate her.

Savovic initially lived with the Roslovics, who are now divorced, but he was forced by Ohio State to move out because the arrangement constituted an NCAA violation.

The suit was originally filed in 2003, then dropped and re-filed last summer. It was scheduled to go to trial in August. In granting the defense's motion for summary judgment, Judge Alan C. Travis, an OSU law school graduate, cited the Ohio Statute of Frauds, which states any fixed contract that extends beyond one year must be in writing.

Salyers' attorney, Jeffrey Lucas, contended the length of the contract was indeterminate and therefore did not fall under the fraud statute.

"We're very disappointed as to the judge's ruling," Lucas said. "The judge dismissed it because he believes the contract that was made with Kathleen was for a four-year period and was not for an indeterminate amount of time as we said in our response to the (motion). We said it was month to month and could have been terminated at will."

Both Roslovics claimed they never had a formal agreement with Salyers, though Kim admitted in depositions she helped pay for trips to Hawaii for Savovic and gave occasional spending money to the player, with whom she admitted having a brief sexual affair.

"There has never been any support for claims against my client, and this decision proves that," said Kris Dawley, Dan Roslovic's attorney. "There's never been any contract. We've said it from the very first day."

Lucas said he and Salyers are "looking at all of our options, and I anticipate we will probably appeal the decision."

Salyers, however, citing her financial difficulties, said, "I honestly don't know if I can take another one to three years of this. It's frustrating when you sit down and tell the truth so many times, and you ... depend on the opportunity to present the case to the jury with all the facts.

"Many times in my deposition I explained that the contract was (to last) for Boban's Ohio State experience. The contract could have ended before he ever started school. It could have ended when Boban's visa expired in September before his freshman year. It could have ended with a phone call from Dan or Kim Roslovic saying they no longer wanted to support Boban. It could have ended if he failed out of school. And I said these things in my deposition."

It was in those same depositions that Salyers first made numerous allegations against the Ohio State basketball program that the NCAA is now investigating. One was that O'Brien gave $6,000 to former recruit Aleksandar Radojevic, whom Salyers met through Savovic and befriended. O'Brien admitted to the violation and was subsequently fired last June (he has since sued for wrongful termination). The school later banned itself from the 2005 postseason as punishment.

Salyers also claimed to have witnessed illegal contact between OSU players and NBA agents, that she and others wrote academic papers for Savovic and that then assistant coach Paul Biancardi, now the head coach at Wright State, twice ordered her to persuade professors to change failing grades for Savovic. Her financial support of Savovic, if proved true, violates the NCAA's extra benefits rules for athletes.

Savovic, now playing professionally overseas, issued a statement last summer claiming Salyers "gave me occasional pocket money" but said that he lived with her for only "approximately four to five weeks" after leaving the Roslovics and denied many of her other allegations.

In the weeks before the lawsuit's dismissal, Salyers had deposed several key witnesses, including Biancardi, who denied all allegations against him. Another witness, Mike Sierawski, a past president of the local Serbian church who befriended Savovic when he first arrived in Columbus, said he gave Savovic $500 when the player was told by Ohio State he had to reimburse the Roslovics in order to restore his eligibility. Sierawski also claimed Biancardi asked him to buy pants for Radojevic and provide spending money during one of the athlete's visits to Columbus.