Man Gets Two Years in Grade-Tampering Case

A former USC employee was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for altering students’ grades through the university’s computer system. The sentencing was the final chapter in the grade-tampering case, which may have involved as many as 43 students.

Darryl Gillard, 29, of Los Angeles also was given a concurrent 262-day jail sentence and placed on five years’ probation for selling $25 worth of rock cocaine to an undercover officer.

Gillard pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court last July to one count each of illegal computer access and drug sales, but his sentencing was delayed until after he had testified in a federal drug possession and conspiracy trial in Louisville, Ky., for Mehrdad Amini, a co-defendant in the grade-tampering case.