As part of a deal for leniency, former Cerritos College assistant football coach Patrick Callahan plead guilty on Sept. 19 to falsifying government documents.
According to a press release from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, Callahan admitted to gaining $91,000 for 13 of the school’s football players, between 1999 and 2004, that were not eligible for the money.
He was looking at a possible sentence of up to 11 years for 26 felony counts before taking a plea bargin and admitting guilt to a 27th, lighter count.
According to Deputy District Attorney Leonard Torrealba, of the Public Integrity Division,the 26 counts were dismissed as Callahan accepted the addition of the 27th count of falsifying government documents.
Cerritos College officials declined to comment, but after the initial arrest in August 2005, Dr. Noelia Vela, Cerritos College president, said that Cerritos had been cooperating with the Department of Education and had handed over financial aid records for review.
At that time Vela said that the college was kept in secret about the details of the investigation in order for the Department of Education to protect the nature of the investigation and that only Callahan was under investigation, not the school.
Callahan pleaded before Bellflower Superior Court Judge Leland Tipton that he helped students submit fraudulent documents to Cerritos College for dependency overrides and in-state tuition for out-of-state players.
Usually the overrides are reserved for low-income students who do not live with their parents and are under 25 to receive Pell Grants without providing proof of a qualifying financial status.
In the other cases, he modified enrollment applications from out-of-state players to indicate California residency.
“He took what should have been a positive situation for students, and taught them how to cheat and break the law,” Torrealba said. “Not only was he teaching students how to cheat, he was saying it was okay.”
Most recently, Callahan served as defensive coordinator, before being charged on Aug. 1 of last year with the 26 felony counts of grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft.
He was an assistant coach at Cerritos for 16 seasons before being suspended by the school after his arrest.
Callahan has agreed to serve 90 days of a two-year sentence and five years probation as well as attend an ethics seminar.
He must also pay $70,758 to the U.S. Department of Education, the amount of the dependency overrides, and $20,799 to Cerritos College, the amount lost by charging in-state tuition to out-of-state players.
“It became a pattern of rationalization that they needed to do this to compete and win,” Torrealba added. “It was a suspension of morality.”
Callahan will have to give up his current job with the college as coordinator of judicial affairs.
He will be back in court Oct. 27 for sentencing and is scheduled to begin his jail term in November.
Callahan had been the target of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Education since May 2000 when a letter was sent to the Federal Student Aid Program in Iowa from an anonymous football player suggesting to authorities to investigate a fellow player.
No students were ever charged.
Neither Callahan nor his attorney was available for comment.
