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Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Former Dunbar coach pleads guilty

Former Paul Laurence Dunbar High School baseball coach Mickey Marshall pleaded guilty Friday to two misdemeanor charges of theft "by failure to make a required disposition" involving money from the baseball booster club.

As part of the guilty plea, the criminal charges were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

Marshall, who led the Lexington school to two state championships and was named 2007 Coach of the Year by the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11 in Fayette Circuit Court. He also faces a restitution hearing Nov. 13.

Booster clubs, made up of parents and coaches, are private organizations that support sports, cheerleading and bands in Fayette County public schools by raising millions of dollars for equipment, travel and other expenses not covered by the school district.

Marshall was charged in July 2008 with three felony counts of theft stemming from allegations he did not use money the way the Dunbar baseball booster club intended.

In November 2008, a Fayette County grand jury dismissed one of the counts, involving a $2,000 check to Marshall from the booster club for a baseball trip.

In the two remaining charges, Marshall was accused of obtaining a $4,000 check on Oct. 8, 2007, from the booster club and agreeing to pay for a scoreboard, but he "failed to make the required payment."

He also was accused of obtaining a $6,500 check on Sept. 7, 2007, from the booster club to pay assistant coaches but did not pay them.

Marshall's attorney, Jim Lowry of Lexington, declined to comment Monday.

In an August 2008 interview with the Herald-Leader, Marshall said that he repaid a person who lent the booster club $4,000 for the scoreboard and that the $6,500 was used for travel and other expenses when he and three assistant coaches went to Philadelphia for a conference.

After being suspended from his position as a teacher at Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Marshall resigned in 2008.