GILROY
– Sometime in the last few weeks, Gavilan College Head Football
Coach John Lango says he got a tip his new assistant might be a
serial impostor.
In a statement to police on Tuesday, Lango said he had hired the
coach
– now known as Fred McGrew – under the pretense that he was
ex-NFL linebacker Larry McGrew.
GILROY – Sometime in the last few weeks, Gavilan College Head Football Coach John Lango says he got a tip his new assistant might be a serial impostor.
In a statement to police on Tuesday, Lango said he had hired the coach – now known as Fred McGrew – under the pretense that he was ex-NFL linebacker Larry McGrew. Lango had announced Gavilan’s hiring of Lawrence McGrew, formerly of the New England Patriots, on the Internet site where he had advertised the coaching vacancy. McGrew moved to Gilroy from Colorado and started work in early August.
But then someone from a “Hampton College” (unknown, but possibly Hampton University in Hampton, Va.) phoned him and warned that “a guy named Larry McGrew is a fake and goes from college to college coaching teams.”
The recently fired Fred McGrew now faces a felony charge for falsely assuming the identity of the retired pro. Arrested on Wednesday, McGrew confessed his elaborate – if inexpert – hoax to Gilroy police.
McGrew was arraigned Friday in county court in San Martin. Judge Edward Lee allowed him to be released pending a Friday court date, when he is expected to enter a plea.
McGrew told police that the real Larry McGrew is his uncle, a claim neither police nor The Dispatch could verify as of press time. McGrew repeated this publicly in court on Friday.
“Frederick Lawrence William McGrew III” was the full name he gave police. His driver’s license, from Colorado, lists it as “Frederick W. McGrew.” In court Friday, he was introduced as “Frederick Lawrence McGrew.” When Judge Lee asked if this was his real name, McGrew replied, “Yes, it is.”
It’s unknown whether Fred McGrew got a string of coaching jobs across the country by assuming Larry McGrew’s identity, although he clearly did so at Gavilan. A Gilroy police check with the Denver Police Department showed a January 2000 arrest for “false information,” but no further information was available.
Regarding the “Hampton College” tip: Gavilan Athletic Director Ron Hannon said the Lango confronted McGrew about the call.
“Fred’s response was it was a college back on the East Coast that was interested in him, that really wanted him, and he had turned them down,” Hannon said.
Hannon said he didn’t know whether Lango believed McGrew’s excuse. Lango didn’t return phone requests for comment.
Social Security fraud
Under police questioning, McGrew also confessed to using another’s Social Security number as his own, without that person’s knowledge or permission. A police scan indicated the number he gave Gavilan belongs to Eva Jean Sowder, born in the 1920s. The scan also showed repeated use of this number by “Frederick,” “Lawrence” and “Larry” McGrew from 1997 to 2001 in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
Police had charged McGrew with two counts of impersonation – one each for posing as the NFL linebacker and as Sowder – but the county district attorney’s office did not bring the second charge forward at Friday’s arraignment.
McGrew told police he had taken Sowder’s number from the Internet and didn’t know who it belonged to. He said he used it to protect his income from his “ex-wife,” to whom he owes child-support payments.
McGrew said as much in court on Friday, despite the fact that Judge Lee had already advised him not to speak about his case on the record before meeting with his attorney.
“The only thing I did was use a Social Security number that I didn’t know whose it was to keep my ex-girlfriend from taking my football check,” McGrew said. This “ex-girlfriend” lives in Colorado, he said, and his children live in Minnesota.
Police found what they think is McGrew’s real Social Security number from his Colorado driving records. A scan showed this number had been used by “Frederick W.,” “Lawrence F.,” “Fred” and “Larry” McGrew, as well as by a Rufus Hatley. McGrew admitted under police questioning that this number was the one issued him at birth. A Social Security card with this number was found among his belongings.
McGrew also confessed to using the real Larry McGrew’s birthdate instead of his own for employment purposes, again to hide his income from his ex-wife.
What Gavilan officials knew
On Tuesday afternoon, Hannon told Gilroy police he had the following reasons for doubting McGrew’s identity, according to the police report:• McGrew’s driver’s license, which Gavilan Human Resources staff had photocopied, lists his name as Frederick W. McGrew, even though he filled out all paperwork as Lawrence.
• McGrew entered the July 23, 1957, birthdate (the real Larry McGrew’s) on his employment forms, but his driver’s license lists it as June 1, 1965.
• McGrew never submitted a Social Security card, although he did enter a Social Security number (Sowder’s). Both Lango and HR staff had reportedly told McGrew that HR needed to see a hard copy of this card before they could issue his paycheck.
• He had obtained an old NFL yearbook and determined that the photo there of Lawrence McGrew did not match the recently fired Gavilan coach.
According to the police report, Hannon told police that “over the past few weeks, there had been increased suspicion about activity involving McGrew.”
Gavilan had fired McGrew that same morning, claiming his coaching methods didn’t agree with Lango’s. Hannon insisted the identity question had nothing to do with McGrew’s firing.
“We let him go because John and he weren’t clicking on the coaching end of it,” Hannon said on Friday. “The police inquiry came after the fact.”
Although Gavilan staff refused to share information regarding McGrew’s personnel records, his application and employment paperwork were submitted by police as public court records. They show that McGrew made some mistakes in pulling off his hoax. Here are a couple of the things that might have sent up red flags (not including those Hannon told police):
• McGrew misspelled the name Lawrence on every form, printing and signing his first name without fail as “Lawrance.”
• On McGrew’s application, under the “education” heading, he claimed he completed 16 years of school – implying four years of college – but then gave his high-school graduation year as 1978 and his University of Southern California grad year as 1980 – indicating two years of college. (Incidentally, McGrew told police during his confession that he’d attended USC for two years but hadn’t graduated.)
In addition, on the résumé McGrew gave Lango (which features NFL logos in the top corners), he embellished Larry McGrew’s achievements and was simply wrong about others. For example, he claimed he was a five-time All-Pro selection, whereas the real Larry McGrew never made the Pro Bowl, according to his bio on the Patriots’ Web site (Police found a printed copy of this bio in McGrew’s car).
