More felonies filed in TCC grade-tampering case

A former Tulsa Community College student accused of paying an employee to alter electronic records now faces additional felony charges. <br><br>Tarig Al-Taweel, 33, was charged Monday in Tulsa County District

Tuesday, March 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A former Tulsa Community College student accused of paying an employee to alter electronic records now faces additional felony charges.

Tarig Al-Taweel, 33, was charged Monday in Tulsa County District Court with two counts of falsely impersonating another person, court records show.

Al-Taweel allegedly presented himself as Fahad Boubshait for the purposes of taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language, a test that must be passed by foreign students in U.S. colleges or universities.

Al-Taweel is accused of impersonating Boubshait between June 2, 2001, and July 25, 2001, at a local business that offers such testing, court records show.

Police believe Al-Taweel used a variety of methods to falsify TOEFL documents and scores that allowed unprepared Middle Eastern students to enroll at TCC.

Al-Taweel was charged Friday in Tulsa County District Court with one felony count of violating the Computer Crimes Act.

He is accused of collaborating with former registrar's office employee Dlorah Jean Hogle to alter the grades of a Middle Eastern student on Jan. 17, 2001, Robertson said.

Al-Taweel repeatedly has denied any direct involvement in the grade-tampering probe, which has resulted in the suspensions of 76 Middle Eastern students from TCC's Northeast Campus.

Two people have been charged with felonies in the investigation by Tulsa police.

Hogle resigned from her post in May after admitting to changing student grades and was charged in August with two counts of altering student records.

Earlier this month, she admitted to changing 46 students' grades in exchange for more than $2,000 from Al-Taweel.

Meanwhile, police have questioned one current TCC professor about gifts he allegedly received from Middle Eastern students.

A second professor, whose employment has been terminated by the school, has also been contacted by police through his attorney, police said.