Arnold Martinez, an assistant coach at Greeley West High School in Colorado, was arrested this week on several marijuana charges.

Martinez, along with two other men who were arrested last month, allegedly ran a multi-million dollar marijuana operation. Law enforcement officials stated that the operation could have raked in more than $3 million.

Martinez was hired by the Greeley-Evans School District 6 in 2006. He was convicted of a felony possiession of marijuana in 1994. School officials knew of his felony conviction and yet still hired him as an assistant wresting coach “after an extensive review and interview.”

Sheriff’s deputies found 1,300 marijuana plants on Martinez’s property. He also had a renter who was also arrested for being part of this operation. Court documents showed that Martinez was receiving $4,320 per month in rent from his tenant. Harvesting the marijuana every two months and shipping mainly to California brought in $3.2 million.

Martinez was released Tuesday on a $25,000 bond. The charges he is facing include: cultivation of marijuana; distribution of marijuana; and possession of more than 100 pounds of marijuana.

A spokesman for the school district commented that they are allowed to hire people with felony convictions in non-teaching roles and that Martinez is one of two people who they hired with a known criminal record.

It may be prudent for the school to review this policy. Keeping our children safe and away from this type of influence should be a top priority. What do you think?

Edward Yancey, a registered sex-offender has been working as a volunteer youth basketball coach for Long Beach, Mississippi’s city recreation program.

The program did run a criminal background check on Yancey, but only in his county of residence. The problem with that is Yancey moved to the area last month and was told to register his new address with the Department of Public Safety. They gave him 10 days to comply, but he failed to follow through.

Had the city’s recreation program expanded their criminal background check to include a nationwide sex offender search, they would have discovered that Yancey is a registered sex offender with a classification of “violent.”

Furthermore, conducting a federal criminal search at his previous address would have provided them with the details of his conviction leading to the sex offender status. Yancey was convicted in 1998 of using a computer to send sexually explicit materials. He was given 3 years of probation, mental counseling and has to register as a sex offender.

Yancey now faces two charges: failing to register as a sex offender and allegedly molesting a 10-year old boy. His bond is set at $1 million.

Clish was heading to trial on October 27th on four felony and one misdemeanor sexual abuse charges.

He was the coach for the Appleton Rebels Youth Baseball team in Appleton, Wisconsin. The charges, however, did not involve any of the players. Clish allegedly gave a 17-year old boy rum and then assaulted him.

Once those charges were filed, other allegations appeared including a sex charge in 1983 that involved a 14-year old. Clish was never convicted. In addition, another man came forward and accused Clish of assaulting him in 1977 and 1978 when the man was 13 and 14-years old. He was a batboy for the team Clish coached.

Unfortunately, we will never know now if Clish was innocent or guilty of the crimes against him. However, this incident has prompted the Appleton Rebels Little League to examine running background checks. Prior to now, they have not background checked their coaches. One hopes that the introduction of background checks in the league will keep unfortunate incidents, like this one, from occurring.

The Post-Gazette’s investigation revealed dozens of past and present officials registered with the PIAA who possess criminal convictions including child molestation, possession of child pornography, gun crimes, drug offenses and more.

According to a statement released on their website in response to the investigation, the PIAA has taken other measures rather than conducting background checks to insure the safety of the children involved in their sporting events. Aside from requiring sports officials to reveal prior criminal convictions on their applications, they also rely on other people in the organization to let them know who has been charged and convicted, or pled guilty to crimes. They also have adopted policies to prevent unsupervised contact between students and sports officials.

The PIAA also cites the cost of doing background checks as a major factor to why they have not enacted the policy thus far. They fear losing officials if they must raise the price of dues. Dues average around $40.00 per official and they anticipate the background checks to cost $50.00, thus doubling the price for their officials. The PIAA claims they could not afford paying for the background checks on their own.

Additionally, the PIAA’s statement included the following:

“To summarize, this issue is one that has been debated by PIAA for several years now. While criminal background checks may be a “feel good” means of taking some action to protect student-athletes, it is not the only, and is certainly not even the best, means available to provide protection. PIAA has taken a different approach, but with (so far) very good results. Perhaps, though, after further assessment of benefits and costs ofdoing so, we will also require criminal background checks. Stay tuned for future developments.”

One hopes that they will see the benefits to conducting background checks outweigh any costs involved when it comes to the welfare of our children.

Nakia “Keith” Owens was pulled over by police in October 2005 for not having license plates or visible registration on his car. When police checked the inside of the vehicle, they found a bag with marijuana, as well as a sock with crack cocaine in it. Both items were found inside an equipment bag marked as belonging to the Sacramento Raiders youth football team. In fact, Owens admitted to police that he was the little-league coach during the search of the car.

Owens was a passenger in the vehicle, but he was under what is referred to as “searchable probation.” He was also wanted for several vehicular violations.

Thankfully, the children involved with this little-league team weren’t outwardly harmed by their coach’s actions; however, a drug test and background check, including a motor vehicle records, would have been prudent.

I talked this over with a coworker. What consequences are in place to keep a registered sex offender from applying to be a coach? None. In the event that a sports organization actually runs a background check, discovers that a prospective employee has a criminal record (which was undisclosed on an application) and doesn’t hire the person, there is nothing stopping that person from just going down the road and applying for another coaching position, possibly in an organization which doesn’t perform background checks.

In most areas, it is illegal for a sex offender to live within a certain vicinity of a school or park, and it’s actually a felony. Sex offenders must also make sure they register in the state or area of residence, or they face legal consequences. So, how about imposing legal consequences on a registered sex offender who knowingly applies for a job involving children and does not disclose their past?

In Greensboro, North Carolina, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department recently adopted a formal background check process, but it’s only on randomly selected coaches. The organization cited the cost (about $14.00 per person) as the reason they cannot run background checks on all of their coaches. Sadly, all it will take is one coach who slips through the cracks and harms a child to make this organization realize that it’s worth the price to background check everyone. In the unfortunate event that something does go wrong, the Parks and Recreation Department will probably pay a lot more money than if they had conducted background checks on all of their employees.

However, placing legal consequences on sex offenders who knowingly apply for youth coaching jobs just might be part of the answer in helping protect our children.

What do you think?

Upon finding out about his criminal record, some team members’ parents contacted a local news station to voice their concerns, mainly that Lay is not a good role model to their children.

Dan Durst, the president of the youth football league has stated that the league does not run background checks on coaches; however, they do check their names with the sex offender registry and are satisfied with that check.

Lay has declined to comment and has asked that any questions be brought to the league. Durst has said that the league will not take any action unless concerns are brought to it by a parent, which has not happened thus far.

Hoff has two previous convictions of sexual assault on a child: one from 1987 and one from 1995, for which he served nearly six years in a Colorado state prison. Both charges were felonies, requiring him to register as a sex offender.

The head coach of the youth football team in Bennett, CO, Brandon Lambrecht, stated that he was aware of Hoff’s criminal history. He allowed Hoff to continue to work as long as he notified the parents of team members. A fellow parent found him on the sex offender registry in 2005, which was his first year serving as an assistant coach for the team on which his son plays.

Hoff told the news station which found his criminal record that he was never told he could not work for the team because of his status as a sex offender and that he would have left the team if they had asked him to.

The team plays in the Elizabeth Parks and Recreation District league. They did not have any records of Hoff being a coach within their league. They issued the following statement, “We conduct CBI background checks on all coaches. All head coaches and assistant coaches are required to sign a form stipulating that they have no convictions for any offense of a sexual nature or any offense of any kind involving children. We’ll be following up with the teams and coaches from Bennett to determine what involvement Mr. Hoff may have with a team.”

Clayton Hoff can be found on Colorado’s Convicted Sex Offender site here.