Police say 22-year-old man posed as Arizona student to try for college basketball scholarship

Police: Man posed as Ariz. student for scholarship

YUMA, Ariz. — A 22-year-old man accused of posing as a student at two Arizona high schools wanted to play basketball and hoped to get a college scholarship, authorities said.

Yuma police on Wednesday arrested Anthony M. Avalos on charges of forgery and sexual conduct with a minor. They said he fraudulently attended Kofa High School and Vista Alternative School intermittently since September 2008. He was a center on Kofa’s basketball team.

Avalos remained jailed Friday on more than $110,000 bond. It was not immediately clear if Avalos had hired an attorney.

Court records show Avalos graduated in 2005 from Crestview High School in Florida.

Authorities said he admitted to creating a fake birth certificate using a word processing program on his laptop computer and used it to enroll in the Yuma schools.

Avalos also admitted to having sex with a girl he knew was under age 18 on at least three different occasions, police said.

According to court documents, a clerk at Kofa High visited Avalos’ Facebook page and discovered that he had posted that he graduated from Crestview in 2005.

Kofa Principal Gina Thompson then contacted Crestview High to confirm the information Avalos had provided to the school. The school administration in Florida provided Kofa officials with a copy of Avalos’ birth certificate and Social Security number.

Information from: The Sun, www.yumasun.com