Coach's charges detailed in court

BY PORTSIA SMITH

The head football coach of Caroline High spent the first day of school in court.

Ben Boyd, 53, is facing forgery and uttering charges after authorities say he failed to disclose one of his two federal misdemeanor convictions and part of his sentence on his school employment application.

This is the first public disclosure by the prosecution or defense of the basis of the charges.

Boyd pleaded not guilty.

Commonwealth's Attorney Tony Spencer claimed that Boyd intentionally left out information about his criminal history in fear that he would not be hired--and that he has done it before.

Spencer said he will present as evidence Boyd's application to Caroline County Public Schools dated March 9, 2009. The application asks if the applicant has ever been convicted of a violation other than a minor traffic violation, and if so, to explain.

Boyd answered "yes" and wrote "misdemeanor 1990--6 mths. probation $250 fine."

Spencer said Boyd's writing was false. He wrote 1990--the year he was charged--when he was actually convicted in 1991; and he wrote six months' probation when he was actually sentenced to 18 months' probation and was not released from probation for almost 11 months.

Spencer said he will also show that the Caroline application was not the first school application that Boyd has falsified.

He said that the same question about criminal history was asked on applications in 1997 in Greensville County and in 1999 in Gloucester County, and that Boyd wrote that he did not have any prior convictions.

Spencer said the question was not asked on a 2000 application in Franklin County, and school officials in that county were not aware of the convictions until September 2006, when the School Board and high school principal received anonymous envelopes that contained copies of an article published in The Roanoke Times that reported Boyd's convictions.

"He's done it before and got away with it," Spencer said in court. "But someone had caught up with him. He knew he couldn't get away with it again in Caroline County, so he said, 'I'll tell them a little bit of the truth and hope they don't notice.'''

1 2 Next Page

The details of Ben Boyd's 1990 arrest were reported in a Roanoke Times article.

According to The Roanoke Times, police in Salem, a small city west of Roanoke, arrested Boyd in August 1990 at a hair salon he owned. The police had obtained search warrants for the contents of a package and the salon where he worked.

The newspaper reported police found 300 tablets of Oxandrolone Spa, three boxes labeled Primobolan Depot, one vial labeled Testosterone Cypionate, three vials labeled Nandrolone Deconoate, 210 hypodermic needles, $860 in cash and a handwritten note.

Police investigated after a postal clerk noticed Boyd was sending packages with incorrect return addresses, the newspaper reported.

Boyd, who wasn't working in public education at the time, was indicted on federal felony charges of illegal possession of steroids. The felony charges were dismissed based on a "strategical decision," Assistant U.S. Attorney Arenda Allen told The Roanoke Times in 1991.

Boyd, a competitive bodybuilder and hairstylist at the time, was sentenced to 18 months probation and a $250 fine. He said the steroids were for personal use.

Boyd was originally charged with intending to distribute anabolic steroids, but there wasn't sufficient evidence presented in court that he sold them.

He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of misbranding and illegally dispensing anabolic steroids.

Read more stories about Caroline
Date published: 9/9/2009

Breaking News - click here to have the latest delivered to your email box or cell phone