Man gets 16 years in grade tampering
Posted on 12/22/2002 4:09:19 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Man gets 16 years in grade tampering
Authorities say he altered marks of failing students from Mideast
12/22/2002
TULSA, Okla. - A judge has sentenced a man accused of tampering with the grades of students at a community college to 16 years in prison.
Tarig Al-Taweel was convicted of eight computer-related felonies linked to accusations that grades were changed for students at Tulsa Community College's Northeast Campus.
Investigators said Mr. Al-Taweel, 33, worked with registrar employee Dlorah Jean Hogle, 46, to change grades of failing students from the Middle East. Ms. Hogle is awaiting trial on two felony counts of violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.
Mr. Al-Taweel, a Palestinian who grew up in Saudi Arabia, talked about his family as he made an impassioned plea for leniency.
"I came to this country when I was 16," he said. "I had no leadership. I hung around with the wrong people. That was my mistake."
Mr. Al-Taweel said his family includes doctors and engineers, and he indicated that he lacks nine credit hours to get an engineering degree.
"I'm going to do my time," Mr. Al-Taweel told the judge. "Whatever you come up with, that's fine. I'm going to take it like a man."
Tulsa County District Judge Tom Thornbrugh told Mr. Al-Taweel he had squandered his "chance at the American dream."
Concluding that his crimes "strike at the very heart of social institutions," Judge Thornbrugh sentenced Mr. Al-Taweel to eight consecutive two-year terms, in accordance with a jury's verdicts last month.
Prosecutor David Robertson urged Judge Thornbrugh to impose the 16-year prison term, saying the defendant's actions caused a "great deal of embarrassment and disruption" to the college.
Mr. Robertson noted that Mr. Al-Taweel has prior convictions. Mr. Al-Taweel went to prison in 1993 after pleading guilty to drug felonies.
Defense attorney John Watson urged Judge Thornbrugh to "consider the severity of the crime" in the college case and to consider that Mr. Al-Taweel has been jailed since Nov. 4, 2001.
Mr. Al-Taweel will get credit for time served.
Irregularities in student grades were discovered in May 2001, and, as a result, 76 Middle Eastern students were expelled for altered grades or for falsified English proficiency test scores.
Mr. Al-Taweel still faces two Tulsa County counts of false impersonation, linked to allegations that he tried to forge English proficiency test score certificates.
He also faces federal prosecution, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service has asked that he be held for possible deportation proceedings.
Isn't that what a kid says when they get caught...
I'll twell!!
no doubt liberal arts credit (as opposed to engineering core credit).
And after a time in prison, Cupcake, you'll learn to take it like a woman.
As the old Berretta show used to observe, "don't do the crime if you can't do the time."
The sentence may be too light.
Consider that many terrorists who bother to get into this country legally will do so under student visa. This man created a front which would permit such students to enroll and appear as active students while promoting and supporting terrorist related activities. They were not accountable in class, and would still get a grade representing an active attending student.
This man's contacts and the students he helped should be rounded up and detained by the government for further investigation into their activities.
So who hired this loser to teach kids at a Community College?
The Diversity Committee.
If they didn't HAVE one, they would have to CREATE one, in order to be politically correct.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.