Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Ex-convict yanked as coach for youth football team

He is a former Plant City police officer. The county had not done a background check of him.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published October 6, 2006

PLANT CITY - A former Plant City police officer who served time in federal prison on corruption charges has been coaching youth football for at least two months without a required county background check.

Armand Cotnoir, 31, was told to leave a Plant City practice field Monday night where he was coaching one of the Plant City Dolphins teams even though the county had not done a background check on him, said Dean May, interim athletic director for the Hillsborough County parks system.

May dispatched a member of the youth sports advisory committee to remove Cotnoir from the field following repeated inquiries about Cotnoir by the St. Petersburg Times. The Times had received an anonymous letter from parents regarding Cotnoir.

Cotnoir served 14 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2002 during his trial on charges involving civil rights violations, participation in illegal searches and the theft of pornographic videotapes. The conviction capped a four-year investigation into the Plant City Police Department, which yielded guilty pleas from two other police officers also accused of searching homes for drugs without warrants, stealing pornographic videos, falsifying police reports and lying to judges to get warrants.

The letter to the Times from "concerned parents" questioned why a felon would be allowed to coach children and how many other coaches with felony records are working with kids.

The incident is prompting county officials to consider a policy for next season that would require the completion of all background checks on the more than 5,000 youth coaches before they're allowed on the field, May said.

"Some leagues get them in a month before, and some are late," he said.

Many of the teams started practicing in July, and the Plant City Dolphins games began in August, according to the teams' schedule on its Web site.

But the Dolphins did not submit its forms for background checks on coaches until about a week ago, May said. It was one of three late-submitting teams out of about four dozen.

Cotnoir's application was included among the Dolphins' forms, and his noted that he had been convicted of a crime in the past.

May said he saw nothing suspicious in the late submission of applications, adding that the forms are compiled by sometimes-harried volunteers.

If the background checks turn up felony convictions, the applicants receive a letter denying their request to coach, he said. In some cases - unless the crime involves violence, drugs or harm against a child - the applicant can appeal the denial to a committee of volunteers.

May acknowledged that some checks on coaches might fall through the cracks if teams fail to submit an application in the first place.

"There are going to be a handful that slip through," he said. "But I think in this county, (the system) is working."

The Dolphins are part of the West Coast Youth Football Conference, which consists of five football groups: flyweight, super midget, midget, junior varsity and varsity.

May was not sure which of the groups Cotnoir was coaching.

But his involvement caught more than the parents' attention. Referees noticed him, too.

John Walters, supervisor for the Southern Independent Conference Officials Alliance, said he got a call in late August or early September from one of his referees following a Dolphins game.

The referee lives in Plant City and was working the game. He recognized one of the coaches as Cotnoir, whose trial received extensive media coverage as part of a scandal that ensnared the city's police chief and city manager, who resigned.

The referee asked Walters why Cotnoir was coaching.

Walters, who only oversees the referees, told him there was nothing he could do.

"I couldn't give him an answer. I don't control who coaches," he said.

Given the publicity involving Cotnoir, Walters said, he assumed the county and league were aware of his background.

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 5, 2006, 06:26:27]