Around the state

4 school operators facing prison for Pell Grant fraud

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 20, 2002

MIAMI -- Four vocational school officials were sentenced Thursday to 10 to 21 months in prison for a scheme to cheat the federal government out of more than $740,000 in grants that were mostly intended for students.

Thomas Koons, a Beacon Career Institute consultant, received 21 months, former owners Patricia Donawa and Kelvin Alexis were sentenced to 18 months, and former administrator Carlos Alvarez was given 10 months.

The defendants also were ordered to pay a total of nearly $1.8-million in restitution.

All four pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy charges.

Donawa was a candidate for the Miramar City Commission when the school was raided in 1999.

The group was accused of pocketing $721,342 in Pell Grants that should have been returned to the U.S. Education Department after students dropped out or didn't show up after enrolling.

Transit director resigns facing deficit and critics

ORLANDO -- Facing fallout from a Las Vegas trip and a budget shortfall, the head of Central Florida's transit agency has resigned.

Byron Brooks said his decision was in "the best interest" of Lynx, the agency.

"These past few months have certainly been trying times for the entire organization," wrote Brooks, whose salary is $140,771. Now is "an ideal time for new leadership."

Lynx has been under fire for two months.

The agency sent 21 people, more than Florida's other transit agencies combined, to a Las Vegas conference where some board members were videotaped by Orlando television station WKMG gambling during business hours. Lynx officials also attended dinners sponsored by firms that had done business with the agency.

The agency encountered renewed criticism when Lynx disclosed that it finished fiscal 2002 $6.38-million in debt.

Brooks came to Lynx two years ago after eight years as a deputy Orange County administrator.

Celebrating graduate dies in fall from hotel balcony

POMPANO BEACH -- A Texas man celebrating his recent college graduation apparently fell to his death from an eighth-story hotel balcony Thursday while climbing between rooms.

Nathan Swarb, 22, returned to the hotel about 4:45 a.m. after a night out drinking and celebrating his graduation from Texas Tech University, said Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright.

Swarb, of Monahans, Texas, and six friends had two rooms at the Quality Inn, but only had a key to one of the rooms when they returned, Coleman-Wright said. Swarb decided to try to climb from the balcony of his room to get into the other room, she said.

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