Compton district’s athletic director Carr is arrested

Ernie Carr, athletics director for the Compton Unified School District, was arrested Thursday by school police on suspicion of felony grand theft and forgery.

Carr, 60, had already been placed on administrative leave by the district. He was booked at the Los Angeles County Jail’s Century Station with his bail listed at $20,000, law enforcement records showed. He faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted.

Carr’s arrest is linked to district school police broadening their investigation of Russell Otis, Compton Dominguez High’s basketball coach and athletic director.

Otis, 46, was charged last month with commercial burglary and child molestation. He is also on leave from his posts and is scheduled to return to Compton court for a hearing April 30.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office alleges that late in 2007, Carr forged a letter -- purportedly from then-Dominguez principal Gary Roberson -- that Otis used to fraudulently deposit a $15,000 check from Nike into the coach’s personal credit union account.

Prosecutors allege the money from Nike was intended for athletic supplies. Dominguez boys’ basketball players are outfitted in Nike sweatsuits, shoes and travel bags, and a Nike spokesman said that the company sponsors that program and “not the coach.”

Carr could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Michael Chaney, said it was “premature to comment” about what led to his client’s arrest.

Otis’ attorney, Leonard Levine, said the letter to his client was not a forgery.

“Mr. Roberson authorized Otis to use the check for basketball purposes and that’s what he did,” Levine said. “Mr. Roberson signed the letter. Otis will be cleared of these charges, and it’s a shame he has to face them in the first place when he’s brought nothing but honor and fame to Compton and that program.”

Otis’ Dominguez teams have won 10 CIF Southern Section championships and six state championships since he became coach in 1987. He took over the program from Carr, for whom he had played.

The charges against Otis related to alleged financial improprieties include an accusation that he accepted a stipend for coaching a Dominguez golf team. Dominguez has no such team.

It is also alleged that Otis made “unwanted sexual advances” -- identified as text messages -- to a former male student. Prosecutors say the coach tried to arrange a meeting with the boy “to engage in lewd and lascivious behavior, and did go to the arranged meeting place at and about the arranged time.”

Otis was acquitted of a child molestation charge against him earlier this decade.

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