Olympic Women’s Track Coach Arrested

A nine-month investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing at Prairie View A&M; has resulted in the arrests of five people, including the woman chosen to head the U.S. women’s track team for the 1992 Summer Olympics, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Three more people have been named in sealed indictments issued by a Waller County, Tex., grand jury, but they have not yet been arrested, special prosecutor A.M. (Buddy) McCaig Jr. said.

Athletic Director Barbara Jacket, recently chosen by The Athletics Congress to head the U.S. women’s track team for the 1992 Games, former athletic director Brutus Jackson, men’s track coach Hoover J. Wright and Harris County deputy constable James B. (Tiny) Andrews were arrested Tuesday. They were released after posting bond.

Bartolo Perez, a former golf coach at Prairie View, was arrested Wednesday and released on bond.

The felony and misdemeanor charges range from official misconduct to theft, bribery and forgery and stem from allegations that at least $40,000 and possibly more than $100,000 might be missing from the athletic department’s coffers, McCaig said.

Jacket is accused of altering restaurant receipts to increase the amount the university reimbursed her. The charges include two counts of official misconduct and 13 counts of securing execution of a document by deception, involving travel vouchers from mid-1987 through early 1989.

Jacket could not be reached for comment.