From The Dallas Morning News: A former title-winning football coach at Mesquite (Texas) High School has been indicted on a felony charge related to pawning more than $100,000 worth of school district equipment. Prosecutors allege that The charge against Steve Halpin, 53, stems from a Mesquite police investigation that, at one time, appeared to have fizzled out. A year ago, investigators presented Mesquite school officials with evidence linking Halpin to pawning 270 items belonging to the district between January 2007 and April 2008. School officials initially declined to prosecute, and Halpin retired. But after an internal audit, school officials found items missing from Mesquite High School's inventory and asked detectives to resume the investigation.
FROM JUNE 2008: Police turned up evidence that a title-winning football coach in the Mesquite (Texas) district repeatedly pawned school property, but the district didn't press charges and let the coach quietly retire in May. Police uncovered evidence that Steve Halpin was pawning and then buying back school-owned equipment. Texas Education Agency officials will soon begin investigating Halpin and the school district for not reporting the problem to the agency as is required. After the accusations became public this week, Halpin resigned as the president of the Texas High School Coaches Association and says he has a gambling addiction.
Read The Dallas Morning News article.
