Prosecutors say a City Colleges of Chicago basketball coach forged employment records so crooks under the electronic monitoring system for pending criminal cases could travel around the city for jobs they didn’t actually have.
Basketball coach Edmond Pryor was fired in 2019 following an unrelated internal investigation, but the probe uncovered “suspicious documents” on Pryor’s work computer, which prompted a second investigation by the Cook County sheriff’s police, according to a report by CWB Chicago.
CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 30: Police investigate the murder of a young man found shot to death in the back seat of a bullet-riddled car (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Chicago Tribune / Contributor via Getty)
Assistant State’s Attorney Jack Costello said Pryor faxed false employment records from his computer, and that two phone numbers linked to the coach received nearly 100 calls from the number the sheriff’s office uses to verify the employment of electronic monitoring participants.
Pryor also received phone calls from court representatives and prosecutors, Costello said, adding that the coach had forged pay stubs and documents claiming that arrested people under electronic monitoring worked for UPS and Amazon.
After he was arrested, Pryor reportedly “made lengthy admissions.” The former coach has since made a $5,000 bail deposit to get out of jail on forgery charges.
“While investigating Edmond Pryor for forging work documents for individuals seeking movement on electronic monitoring in 2018 and 2019, sheriff’s police identified other individuals who allegedly took part in this scheme,” the sheriff’s office said.
“Investigators are working to locate these individuals and bring them into custody,” the sheriff’s office added. “This is an ongoing investigation.”
As for the initial separate internal investigation that prompted the second one involving forged documents, the City Colleges’ inspector general said a head basketball coach was fired after a 2019 investigation found he used his work computer to create fake receipts for reimbursement, and false university transcripts, among other things.
Last month, New Mexico State University announced that Pryor had joined the school’s men’s basketball organization as a defensive analyst.
Read more at CWB Chicago here.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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