STUDENT SENTENCED FOR BREAKING INTO HIGH SCHOOL TO CHANGE OFFICIAL COLLEGE TRANSCRIPT GRADES AND STEAL PUBLIC RECORDS

SANTA ANA - A former Tesoro High School senior was sentenced today for breaking into his high school on multiple occasions to steal advanced placement (AP) course tests from classrooms, alter test scores, and change official college transcript grades. Omar Shahid Khan, 21, Coto de Caza, pleaded guilty a court offer March 21, 2011, to two felony counts of commercial burglary and one felony count each of altering public records, stealing or removing public records, and attempting to steal or remove public records. At the sentencing today, The Honorable Thomas Goethals dismissed four of the felony counts and reduced the fifth, attempting to steal or remove public records, to a misdemeanor. Khan was sentenced today to 30 days in jail, three years of probation, 500 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay over $14,900 in restitution.
Co-defendant Tanvir Singh, 21, Ladera Ranch, pleaded guilty Sept. 9, 2008, to one felony count of attempting to steal or remove public records and one misdemeanor count of computer access and fraud. He was sentenced on that date to 200 hours of community service and three years of formal probation.
Between Jan. 23, 2008, and May 19, 2008, Khan entered classrooms and administrative offices at Tesoro High School on several occasions late at night and on weekends to steal AP course tests and access school computers to change his grades. Between Jan. 23, 2008, and Jan. 26, 2008, Khan obtained the user name and password of his AP Physics instructor and accessed the classroom computer to change his test scores and grades. On April 17, 2008, he entered the school administrative offices late at night and changed his office transcripts using the Registrar's user name and password, which he previously obtained by installing spyware devices on multiple computers in Tesoro's administration offices.
On April 18, 2008, Khan was caught cheating on an AP Statistics test. The teacher confiscated the test and gave it to the Assistant Principal for further disciplinary action. Over the weekend, Khan broke into the Assistant Principal's office and stole the test in an attempt to destroy the evidence that he cheated.
Late at night on April 21, 2008, Kahn entered the administration offices to change his transcript grades and the grades of other students in the district's grade database program. The following morning, he requested certified copies of his official transcripts in order to appeal his denial of admission to several colleges including the University of Southern California and the Universities of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
On May 19, 2008, Khan and Singh entered a classroom to steal an English test scheduled for the following day but were interrupted by a night custodian and fled the scene. Cell phone records established that Kahn and Singh exchanged several text messages earlier that day detailing their plans to break into the English teacher's classroom later in the evening to steal the test answers. A subsequent search by the Orange County Sheriff's Department revealed that Khan had installed spyware devices on the computers of several teachers and school administrators throughout his senior year. The devices were used to obtain passwords to access teacher computers in classrooms and school administrative offices.
Deputy District Attorney Chuck Lawhorn of the White Collar Crime Team prosecuted this case.
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Comments

[A friend]

Did I read somewhere that these two characters are enrolled in private colleges here in CA?

[Rhetorick]

Wow, can you believe how much easier it would have been to just study and do the work instead?

[Spare the rod...spoil the child]

I cannot help but wonder why the felony charges would be changed to misdemeanors. Is this justice? Does it occur with all people who do such crimes? Absolutely not. The courts showed mercy...and perhaps the wealthy parents of these students had some influence. In any case, the penalty of the crimes were not consistent with the law.

[what law??]

Unfortunately, that's one thing that's definitely wrong with society. Look at all the DUI convictions where the punishments are reduced to practically nothing, and the same person does the same thing a year later? Look at the Lindsay Lohan's of the world who get a hand slap. Do these people learn lessons? Nope - they usually end up being repeat offenders. Perhaps if judges got tougher, and actually sentenced according to what the law says is a reasonable punishment, some of these criminals would think twice before repeating their crimes.