State asked St. John's about forged Thomas transcript

• State investigators are asking St. John%27s University about a forged transcript for Keith Thomas
• The university has not yet said whether the transcript was used to get Thomas a scholarship
• The forged transcript says its an %22Undergraduate Official Transcript%22

State investigators have asked St. John's University for information about a forged transcript that shows former Red Storm basketball player Keith Thomas earned four As and mostly Bs at Westchester Community College, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office has confirmed.

Investigators from the state Inspector General's Office inquired whether the phony community college document obtained by The Journal News was the same one provided to St. John's when the university granted Thomas an NCAA Division I scholarship, said Lucian Chalfen, a district attorney's office spokesman. The school has not yet responded, he said.

Thomas, who led the nation in rebounds per game while at WCC, was booted from the St. John's team in October after the university, which is in Queens, reviewed his transcript. The review was prompted by a Journal News investigation that revealed two other former WCC basketball players had their NCAA Division I scholarships yanked at Florida A&M, in Tallahassee, due to phony transcripts.

St. John's issued a statement then that Thomas, a former Yorktown High School standout, did not "meet the academic standards required by the NCAA for transfers," but did not elaborate.

Chalfen on Monday confirmed the inquiry at St. John's — currently 17th in the Associated Press Top 25 men's college basketball rankings — after the newspaper, which obtained a copy of the fake transcript in November, asked whether the matter is being investigated. Stephen Dombroski, associate athletic director for communications at the university, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The bogus one-page document, an "Undergraduate Official Transcript," has a student ID number and shows Thomas earned As in classes including "Health & Sports for Life," "Intro to Early Film," "Intro to Modern Film" and "Italian-American Culture-Eng."

It notes he had two C+s, with his lowest grade of any course completed being a C in "Comp & Lit 1." The vast majority of his grades were Bs. There is at least one error, with a semester listed out of order. The Fall 2012 semester is followed by the Winter 2012 semester, when it should say Winter 2013.

An assistant coach at a Northeast Division I program, who requested anonymity because discussing personal information on potential recruits could cost him his job, previously told The Journal News that he quickly took Thomas and former WCC player Giovanni McLean off his recruiting list after looking at their transcripts. McLean was booted from Quinnipiac University's team, another Division I program, last month after his transcript was reviewed as a result of the newspaper's coverage.

"I knew the transcripts were fake the minute I saw them," the coach said, citing higher-than-expected GPAs, mixed-up semesters and heavy course loads. "I've done this a long time. I've seen thousands of transcripts."

A spokesman for the state Inspector General's Office could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

WCC canceled its men's basketball season in October after the newspaper's reporting, which triggered an investigation by the National Junior College Athletic Association into potential eligibility violations of all of the college's athletes going back three to five years.

The newspaper broke the story that former WCC stars Jamell Walker and Damien Davis lost their athletic scholarships to Florida A&M in October after their transcripts were found to be phony, and that WCC had fired assistant coach Richard Fields. Fields admitted doctoring Walker's transcript and forging a signature for him on an eligibility form, according to WCC spokesman Patrick Hennessey. Fields has denied any wrongdoing. Hennessey also has said Walker took one course, but his transcript said he earned a full degree and graduated.

The newspaper's coverage also prompted the community college to investigate the transcripts and academic eligibility of dozens of its student-athletes over the past three to five years, and Concordia College and SUNY Purchase to examine transcripts of all WCC transfers, not just student-athletes. Hennessey said he hasn't seen Thomas' fake transcript and declined to say what grades Thomas earned at WCC, citing student privacy laws.

"At this point, we're just waiting to see what happens with the Inspector General's Office," he said. "We're just waiting on them to finish the investigation."

The Journal News also reported that the NJCAA, the SUNY Chancellor's Office and the Inspector General's Office were tipped to the fraud in October 2013 through an anonymous email. NJCAA officials said the email was forwarded to the WCC president, who acknowledged receipt of it, but there's no indication school officials took any action.