Fort Collins – Five current and former Colorado State University football players, and two other Fort Collins residents, were charged with bank fraud Wednesday by the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office.
Specifics regarding the scope of the alleged crimes and other details relating to the fraud charges were not available, but Adokole Brian Ike Abata, Calee Jo Chleboun, Micah Lamar Crews, Daniel Aaron Foster, Preston Louis Garcia, Robert Bruce Herbert and Tramell V. McGill were charged with fraud, theft and identity theft, according to Linda Jensen, spokeswoman for the district attorney.
The current CSU football players are Abata, Crews and Herbert. Foster and McGill, who is a running back at Arizona Western College in Yuma, Az., are former CSU football players.
“We take these charges very seriously,” said CSU football coach Sonny Lubick. “Because of the nature of these allegations, the players involved have been temporarily suspended from the football team pending the outcome of the police investigation.”
AWC suspended McGill on Wednesday.
Lubick said CSU will cooperate completely with the investigation. “This type of behavior is not tolerated in our program,” he said.
Arrest warrants were filed Tuesday. A grand jury investigation began in February and continues to look at new evidence, Jensen said. The arrest warrant affidavit has been sealed, she said.
“There’s been an ongoing criminal investigation since November involving bank fraud,” she said.
She declined to give details about the crimes committed or explain how they were related.
Three of the suspects turned themselves in to the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins Wednesday, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Kathy Messick,
CSU spokeswoman Dell Rae Moellenberg said university authorities only learned about the charges on Wednesday. But CSU Police Chief Dexter Yarbrough said his office worked with Fort Collins police on the investigation. “We have to wait to get information from the authorities and review it before we know what action we can take,” Moellenberg said.
Although players have been suspended from the team, they can continue attending class unless they are also suspended or expelled from school, said Anne Hudgens, executive director of campus life. CSU could also give interim suspensions to students charged with felonies once officials learn more about specific charges, Hudgens said.
Herbert, a cornerback/kick return specialist charged with two counts of theft, is the only one who has made a name for himself on the field. A senior in his third year at CSU after transferring from Compton (Calif.) Community College, Herbert started every game in 2005 and was named honorable mention All-Mountain West Conference.
But his career has been plagued with leg injuries and in preseason practice he lost his starting job.
Abata was charged with two counts each of theft and forgery and Crews with one count each of theft and forgery.
Scott Yates, football coach and athletic director at Kent Denver, said Crews was “nothing but a gentleman” who never missed class. “I feel bad he’s found himself in this situation,” Yates said.
McGill, charged with three counts of theft and one count of identity theft, would have been a third year sophomore running back but was academically ineligible at the end of the spring.
Chleboun and Foster were each charged with one count of theft and four counts of forgery. Garcia was charged with four counts of theft and two counts of forgery.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
