Ex-Coach Pleads Guilty to Failure to Disclose Past

A former basketball coach who was fired after it was disclosed he was a sex offender pleaded guilty Tuesday to submitting false fingerprints for an employment background check.

Darryl McDonald, 36, of Sylmar, will face a maximum of 16 months in prison at a February sentencing. His lawyer said he would ask for probation.

McDonald, who took a winless Alemany High team to the league basketball championship in his first season, was fired last summer after school officials learned he was convicted in 1989 of oral copulation with a minor. His lawyer, Jeffrey Brodey, said the incident involved McDonald’s dating teenage girls while in his 20s.

Despite the conviction, which required McDonald to register as a sex offender, he was subsequently hired by both the North Valley YMCA and Alemany after submitting a friend’s fingerprints as his own, according to Brodey and Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert DeCarteret.

Alemany failed to submit the prints to the Department of Justice, accepting instead the YMCA’s 1994 favorable background check, Brodey said.

An anonymous call led McDonald’s employers to check into his criminal record, which DeCarteret said also included convictions for failure to register as a sex offender and a domestic-related assault. The popular coach was suspended and later fired from the Mission Hills school.

State law requires public and private schools to conduct background checks on any employee who might have contact with children. Schools are prohibited from hiring those who have been convicted of sex offenses, drug offenses or violent crimes.

After an investigation by the state Department of Justice, the district attorney’s office in September filed charges against McDonald of perjury and filing false documents to both the YMCA and Alemany. On Tuesday, McDonald pleaded guilty to the false document charge relating to the YMCA background check in exchange for an agreement capping his sentence at 16 months. The remaining charges were dropped.

DeCarteret said his office brought charges to discourage others from covering up their criminal pasts when applying for jobs caring for children .

“Obviously the people that are hiring him ought to know what his background is before making that decision,” DeCarteret said.