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Coach's arrest record led to resignation
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
ST. LEO -- In his five seasons at Saint Leo University, Ed Stabile amassed an impressive 175-105 record, becoming the second-winningest baseball coach in school history. It wasn't until a week or two ago that university officials discovered that Stabile, 43, also had amassed a considerable arrest record. Once he was caught with cocaine, according to reports. Twice he was arrested on charges of trying to hire a prostitute. And two other times he was arrested on drunken driving charges. His wild side was largely a secret at Saint Leo, where officials hired Stabile in 1997 without running a criminal background check. Such screening is routine at some schools, but not at Saint Leo; however, the revelation has prompted the school to begin steps to change its hiring policies. Fran Reidy, the university's athletic director, confronted Stabile after a tip from a student about Stabile's arrests. The coach resigned Jan. 15. At the time, he told the St. Petersburg Times he had resigned because he and his wife wanted to start a family and he needed a higher paying job. University officials admitted Tuesday that Stabile quit because of the arrests. "Certainly when confronted with (his arrest record, Stabile) was forthcoming, and at that point said that he wanted to resign," Reidy said Tuesday. "There were some personal issues he felt needed to be addressed or perhaps those problems would resurface." Stabile could not be reached for comment Tuesday; however, his wife, Susan, said her husband is now in a treatment program, using the incident as inspiration to turn his life around. "He always tells his kids to battle on and keep swinging," she said Tuesday evening. "That's what he always told them, and that's the kind of guy he is. . . . He's trying to do the right thing now." Stabile's resignation leaves the Lions searching for an interim coach before the Feb. 1 season opener. It also has prompted university officials to rethink their hiring procedures. Officials review transcripts, verify credentials and check references before hiring anyone, but no one faces a criminal background check, human resources director Jan Aspelund said. The university's standard job application asks applicants whether they have ever been arrested or convicted of any crime. But officials do not verify that information, and the form was adopted several years after Stabile was hired in 1997. "This has, for the most part, not created a problem for us; however, in light of what has taken place in the last week, we decided we obviously need to re-evaluate," Aspelund said. "Times have changed, and we need to go a little more in-depth in how we do background checks." A new policy is in the works to require some kind of criminal background check for new hires, Aspelund said. She did not know whether current employees would face criminal background checks, too. "That gets a little bit more technical and legal, and we're discussing that with our attorney," Aspelund said. Such background checks are neither unusual nor onerous. In fact, the county public schools are required by state law to run criminal background checks on all hires, from janitors to coaches to administrators, said David Salerno, human resources supervisor for Pasco County schools. Once a job offer has been made, Salerno said, the school fingerprints the prospective employee. The fingerprints go to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI, which check their records for any signs of a criminal past. The school pays $52 per check, plus the cost of keeping an employee and some equipment at the fingerprinting office, he said. "I don't think it's anything that's too terribly time consuming," Salerno said. The University of South Florida performs criminal background checks on certain employees such as security guards, nurses, day care workers and janitors who hold master keys, said Sandi Conway, the university's interim human resources director. But most USF faculty members do not undergo criminal background checks, unless they conduct research using certain chemicals or other "sensitive agents," Conway said. Saint Leo does check the driving records of employees who might use university vehicles. One of those checks in 1999 showed Stabile had a DUI arrest in Pasco County from the previous year, Reidy said. Reidy talked to Stabile, who said he was going through counseling as part of his plea agreement. The men agreed Stabile would not drive the baseball players anywhere; charter buses or other drivers would provide the rides, Reidy said. Aside from that arrest, Reidy said, the university was unaware of Stabile's record. Once it came to light, Reidy spoke to the coach a couple of times before the resignation was announced last week. "There are some personal issues that needed to be addressed, and we wanted to make sure that there was some support there," Reidy said. "Obviously there's two conflicting things here. We are a value-based, Catholic institution. By the same token, we do care about people; and it is our hope that Coach Stabile will obviously deal with these issues that were causing some problems for him." -- Bridget Hall Grumet covers crime in east Pasco. She can be reached at (352) 521-5757 ext. 23 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 23. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com .
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