Man indicted in college fraud with Otterbein ties
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A grand jury yesterday indicted a man accused of running a Florida diploma mill that had operated through Otterbein College for four years. And that same grand jury recommended that the Florida teachers who obtained the academic credits without having to take any classes be fired and stripped of their teaching certificates.

The Miami-Dade state attorney's office yesterday arrested and charged Miami high-school physical-education teacher William McCoggle with grand theft and fraud in his operation of MOTET, or Move On Toward Education and Training. Both charges are first-degree felonies. More arrests are coming, said Richard Scruggs, special counsel to the state attorney's office, which is equivalent to a county prosecutor in Ohio.

McCoggle, 75, operated MOTET with the help of several colleges, including Otterbein and Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton. Otterbein officials had no comment yesterday about the developments regarding MOTET and McCoggle.

Federal, state and local authorities in Florida have been investigating MOTET for more than a year, concentrating almost exclusively on its operation with Eastern Oklahoma. Yesterday's charges were based on that.

Last week, after a Dispatch investigation of Otterbein's connection with MOTET, Florida authorities began investigating the classes MOTET offered through the college in Westerville.

In both cases, MOTET offered a way individuals in Florida could receive academic credit to become certified elementary and high-school teachers or to renew their certifications. The colleges provided the academic credits while MOTET supposedly provided the classes MOTET students took. Academic credit was offered in a number of fields, including driver's education, physical education, English and teaching methods.

During a nine-month investigation, a Miami-Dade grand jury examined MOTET's mostrecent operation, through Eastern Oklahoma from 2002 to 2003. It found that "there were no classes taught by or through MOTET. . . . None of the adjunct professors actually taught anything. No teachers actually attended any classes. There was no learning and no educational end was attained."

In a 30-page report issued yesterday, the grand jury said MOTET submitted "sham grade sheets and attendance records" to Eastern Oklahoma, which then issued transcripts. "Our investigation has raised serious questions as to the legitimacy of teaching credentials of close to 100 teachers," the report said.

Another 89 teachers who are not in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools also took classes through MOTET and Eastern Oklahoma. In total, the teachers obtained 1,639 credits in 340 courses in 18 months, according to the report.

Scruggs said Otterbein's involvement was more extensive. So far, he's learned of 629 teachers who received Otterbein credit through MOTET. The school was involved with MOTET from 1999 through 2002.

The Dispatch first asked Otterbein about its involvement with MOTET in March, shortly after being contacted by Miami-Dade teacher Bennett Packman. Packman had been asked by Miami-Dade school officials to take classes through MOTET in 2003, but he had refused and went without pay for nearly a year. During that time Packman researched MOTET's involvement with Miami-Dade teachers, pushing government officials to investigate what he concluded was a shady operation.

Otterbein has released little information about its MOTET operation. Ten days ago, officials said they expected to complete their review of the situation in 30 days. Dan Thompson, the Otterbein administrator who worked with MOTET, died in March. He was associate dean of academics.

Eastern Oklahoma's involvement with MOTET, on the other hand, was extensively investigated by the Oklahoma Board of Regents as soon as it learned of the arrangement. As a result, the president of Eastern Oklahoma resigned and the students who had received Eastern Oklahoma credits through MOTET lost them.

The state ordered the school to refund the money it had received through MOTET. MOTET had charged $775 for a threecredit course; the college kept $225 of that amount.

Scruggs said yesterday he expects to charge some individuals in Florida and Oklahoma. "McCoggle didn't do it by himself; there were about 10 others used as adjunct professors and they pretended to be teaching the classes," he said. "They signed papers saying they taught classes and they got paid per student. I would imagine those people could be arrested, too."

The grand jury concluded that McCoggle's motive was "money, pure and simple." It estimated that MOTET received more than $250,000 from the classes taught through Eastern Oklahoma. Besides recommending that all the teachers certified through MOTET's "shortcut" arrangement be fired, the report suggests those teachers be required to repay salaries they had received based on their bogus certifications.

The report also recommends:

• Making it a felony to obtain or renew a Florida educator's certificate using false information.
• That Miami-Dade schools identify all teachers who received credits through MOTET.

Packman said he's pleased with the Florida investigation into MOTET, but he hopes more investigating is done. "What makes me happy is that McCoggle's not going to be around to do this any longer," he said yesterday. For the teachers who were punished for refusing to take classes through MOTET "and all the children that have been given a secondrate education, this is a victory for them."

kgray@dispatch.com

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