3 Ex-College Officials Indicted in Alleged Scam

The Riverside County Grand Jury has returned an indictment against three former Riverside Community College administrators charged with constructing a scheme that diverted more than $1 million in state funds to their own educational consulting business.

A Superior Court judge on Monday set a trial date of April 26 for William O’Rafferty, the college’s former associate vice president of academic affairs, and two of his assistants: Steven Bailey, the college’s dean of public safety, and Robert Curtin, the associate dean of public safety.

Prosecutors allege that the three, all former Riverside County sheriff’s deputies, pocketed $1,029,532 in public money from January 2000 to August 2002 by manipulating enrollment figures for public safety classes at Palo Verde Community College in Blythe, which they approached as private consultants.