Inglewood’s Hart Scrutinized Again

A report by Inglewood High to the California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section that apparently had closed an investigation into the athletic eligibility of standout basketball player Jason Hart has raised further questions about the issue.

The report, submitted last month by Inglewood Principal Kenneth Crowe, indicated that Hart lives in the Inglewood High attendance area and is properly enrolled at the school. An investigation by The Times, however, has turned up possible discrepancies and Dean Crowley, commissioner of the Southern Section, said he may have to convene a hearing on the matter.

“There are pertinent questions raised about Jason Hart’s eligibility at Inglewood High, and we’re prepared to look into them,” Crowley said.

At question, among other things, are Hart’s residence and his enrollment procedure at Inglewood High.

The report from Inglewood was requested by Southern Section officials Jan. 9, after they had received information that alleged Hart was not living in the Inglewood district. After reading Crowe’s report, Southern Section officials determined that Hart was eligible.

Copies of Crowe’s 18-page report have not been made available, but sources have disclosed much of what was in it to The Times.

The report included rental receipts to indicate that Jason and his mother, Deborah Hart, live in a home in Inglewood near the Forum. But property records show that Deborah Hart still owns a house in South-Central Los Angeles, where she is often found, and as late as mid-December Jason Hart said he lived in that house.

Also, the Inglewood home the report says the Hart family is now renting is in the Morningside High attendance area, according to Maria Martin, the child-welfare and attendance administrator for the Inglewood Unified School District. Students in the Morningside attendance area who wish to enroll at Inglewood High must acquire intra-district permits. Officials at both schools say there is no record of Hart having one.

Crowe’s report also included a letter on Inglewood Police Department stationery, verifying Hart’s Inglewood residence. It was signed by police officer Scott Collins, who is also a volunteer assistant boys’ basketball coach at Inglewood.

Oliver Thompson, Inglewood police chief, said Collins was not authorized to write such a letter.

“Officer Collins acted in an unofficial capacity . . . ,” Thompson said. “I should have been made aware of it, and I would have been the one who would make such a request. This is not how we do business, and we wouldn’t be involved in something like this.”

Collins denied having been involved in the matter.

“I don’t know anything about a visit to Jason Hart’s house,” Collins said. “Such a visit would have been handled by the school district’s police and not the Inglewood Police Department.”

Also at issue is Hart’s enrollment date at Inglewood. In his report, Crowe said Hart, a senior, began classes Sept. 11. But according to Hart’s counselor, Betty Wilson-Jefferson, he didn’t pick up his schedule until Sept. 20.

“He couldn’t have started earlier because he wouldn’t have had a schedule of classes to go to,” she said. “I was never asked for any information during Jason’s investigation, but I would have told anyone who asked the same start date.”

The Southern Section, which is based in Cerritos and is one of 10 state sections governing high schools sports, requested the report from Inglewood after learning that The Times was looking into the possibility that Hart was violating eligibility rules.

The Southern Section’s bylaws specify that investigations are to be handled by the principals of member schools and not by section officials.

When Crowe was notified of the allegations on Jan. 9, he suspended Hart from the team, pending an internal review. Although Southern Section officials say they were not notified, Crowe reinstated Hart three days later, Jan. 12, and the 6-foot-2 point guard played in the school’s Bay League victory over Palos Verdes Peninsula that night. He sat out one game during his suspension, Jan. 10.

On Jan. 16, Crowley received Crowe’s report and, after receiving additional requested material the next day, cleared Hart. Crowley could have requested a hearing before members of his Executive Committee but said the report appeared so complete that a hearing wasn’t necessary.

“The school said the player and his family moved into their district over the summer, and they have the paperwork to back it up,” Crowley said on Jan. 17. “The evidence was overwhelming. It was pretty much a slam-dunk case.”

Hart, who signed a national letter of intent with Syracuse in November, spent three years at Westchester High before transferring to Inglewood.

In an interview with The Times on Dec. 19, Hart said he left Westchester because he was unhappy with his athletic development and his relationship with Coach Ed Azzam, who annually fields some of the top teams in the CIF City Section. The interview was conducted in the living room of what Hart referred to as his “home,” the three-bedroom house across the street from Horace Mann Junior High in South-Central Los Angeles. Hart said he lived there with his mother.

The next day, when asked how her son was able to attend Inglewood when he didn’t live in the Inglewood district, Deborah Hart said Jason was living with his older brother, Richard, in Inglewood.

Two days before Hart’s Jan. 9 suspension, a reporter called Deborah Hart at her South-Central L.A. house late in the evening. She said she and Jason were watching television and talking.

Later that week, after the suspension, the Hart family hired attorney Michael Kapland and requested that all questions concerning Jason’s eligibility be made through him. Their home phone was also disconnected, although it has since been reconnected.

In his report, Crowe maintained that Deborah and Jason Hart moved to Inglewood last summer, and included rental receipts for that house. Crowe also said, in his report, that Jason was interviewed by The Times in December at his previous residence because it was holiday time and he was there taking care of a problem. The report included rental receipts showing someone else had been leasing the Harts’ South-Central L.A. house.

That house is in the Crenshaw High attendance area. Hart had said during the December interview that he was able to attend Westchester his first three years of high school because he had obtained an intra-district permit allowing him athletic eligibility while living out of the area. But Barbara Fiege, City Section commissioner, said neither she nor the administrators at Westchester have a record of such a permit.

“It appears he was illegally enrolled all three years,” Fiege said.

The property that the Harts are renting in Inglewood, according to Crowe’s report, is owned by Donovan Green, a former boys’ basketball coach at St. Bernard High in Marina del Rey. Green recently introduced Jason to one of his next-door neighbors, a teacher at Inglewood who also rents from Green.

“I have lived here for three years and I don’t recall having seen Jason before that introduction,” said the teacher. “And I don’t recall having seen him since.”

Attempts to contact Green, a local businessman, were unsuccessful.

Several late-evening attempts to reach Hart by telephone at the Inglewood address also were unsuccessful. Each time, the person who answered said that Hart was not there and that he didn’t know when Hart would be.

Deborah Hart’s voter registration, property tax records and national credit profile still list her address at the house in South-Central L.A.

She was reached by telephone at her South-Central L.A. house late in the evening of Jan. 29.

“I just stopped by here to get a few things,” she told a reporter. “I really don’t have anything else to say. You have a nice evening.”

When Hart enrolled at Inglewood in September, he arrived at school without a parent or proper paperwork, according to a school administrator. District policy requires new students to register with a parent or legal guardian present and to show two utility bills as proof of residency. Hart did neither, the administrator said.

Hart was told he couldn’t be enrolled until he brought in utility bills, and his folder was put off to the side. He never returned with the required paperwork, and his folder later showed up in the counseling office, the administrator said.

According to a school administrator, mail sent to Hart’s Inglewood address by the school was returned, marked undeliverable.

Before transferring to Inglewood, Hart played with the school’s summer league basketball team, joining in time for the L.A. Watts Summer Games tournament in June, before the end of classes at Westchester.

In an interview before his suspension, Hart said that Inglewood Coach Patrick Roy had coached the team in that tournament. Section rules prohibit coaches from having personal contact with students before they move into the area and enroll at their schools. Section officials say they didn’t ask Crowe to investigate Roy for a possible undue-influence violation because they were told the Hart family had already moved and had made its intentions to enroll at Inglewood known.

Hart’s three-day suspension and the ensuing investigation have created tension between Crowe and some faculty members.

One teacher contacted by The Times was later reprimanded after Crowe learned of the conversation. That teacher complained to the California Teachers’ Assn. that she was being harassed, and a meeting among the teacher, Crowe and a CTA representative was held recently to work out the problem.

“Everyone at the school knows basketball is Dr. Crowe’s top priority,” said one teacher. “Everyone here knows what’s going on, but they’re afraid to tell the truth for fear they’ll get in trouble or be harassed.”

Crowe took over as principal in September 1990, and Inglewood High has maintained its strong basketball tradition. Former USC All-American Harold Miner played for the Sentinels, as did Paul Pierce, the Southern Section’s Division II player of the year last season and now a starter at Kansas.

In his fourth season as coach, Roy is 98-21. His teams have won four consecutive league titles and a section championship in ’94. The Sentinels are 23-3 this season and open the Division II-A playoffs Friday against Bosco Tech. Hart is leading the team in scoring with a 20-point average.

If Hart’s eligibility case is reexamined by the Southern Section and Hart is found to be in violation of section rules, Inglewood will have to forfeit all victories in which Hart participated.

Roy, who doesn’t have a college degree or teaching certificate, was given the additional duties of co-athletic director by Crowe last fall. Duane Johnson, a social studies teacher, is the other athletic director.

According to Elijah Mackey, Inglewood’s athletic director from 1992 to ‘94, the boys’ basketball coach receives an annual stipend of $1,330 and the athletic director’s stipend is $1,204 a year.

Said one senior district administrator, “In all my years of education, I’ve never heard of an athletic director who didn’t have a teaching certificate. I couldn’t find a policy prohibiting such a thing, but it’s highly unusual, especially because it’s an administrative position.”

At the beginning of the investigation, Roy, an Inglewood graduate, said he was unaware that Hart might have been improperly enrolled.

“It’s not my job to find out where the players live,” he said. “I’ve never been to Jason’s house, and I just assumed he’s living where he said he’s living. If the kid lied about his address, that’s up to school administrators to find out.”

Since Jan. 9, Crowe, Roy and the Hart family have declined all requests for interviews.

“Administrators at Inglewood are aware they have an opportunity to respond to your investigation, and they have said they don’t want to comment,” said Asa Reaves, an attorney representing the district. “I’m sure they’re concerned about what’s going on, but they’ve elected to keep their comments to themselves.”