[OnlineAccent] Arraignment set for additional DVC defendants

Two former Diablo Valley College students who have been charged in the cash-for-grades scheme are scheduled for a court date in two weeks.

Erick Martinez and Pawel Trybilo are scheduled to be in Martinez on Feb. 19 for an arraignment and to set a court date for trial.

Trybilo faces one count of fraud, while Martinez is facing as many as 10 counts of computer fraud, Dodie Katague, lead prosecutor, said.

Katague said the two are expected to plead not guilty.

"If they want to plea they can," he said.

Defendants Julian Revilleza and Jeremy Tato entered guilty pleas in September. Revilleza, the mastermind behind the scandal, pleaded guilty Sept. 25 to 15 counts of felony computer fraud and conspiracy. He is serving a minimum of one year in county jail of a suspended four-year state prison sentence.

While working in the DVC Admissions and Records Office, Revilleza led a ring of students and workers who would change and add grades for students who paid at least $100 a grade.

Katague said Tato also plead guilty to seven felonies and was sentenced to a year in county jail.

Martinez is expected to take his case all the way to trial, Katague said, due to an "immigration problem."

Any guilty finding, Katague said, and Martinez would be deported.

The uncovering of the cash-for-grades scam occurred in 2006 after professor Michael Whitaker noticed Martinez continuing to appear on the class roster, the felony complaint against the defendant states said. It continued, although Whitaker dropped Martinez several times, an "A" grade continued to show up for the DVC student.

Charges were brought against 34 DVC students in the summer of 2007. As a term of Revilleza's plea deal, he cooperated with and admitted to Katague and the district attorney's office of what he had done and who was involved.

Katague said court dates for six middlemen are set from March and April.

"These are the guys in the middle," he said, "the guys who took money."

Francis Antonion, Christopher Macatulad and Selymon Shahsamand are scheduled for preliminary hearings on March 12 at 8:30 a.m. Joseph Chow, Mateen Rooshen and Montu Sharm are scheduled for preliminary hearings on April 8 at the same time.

Contact Brett Abel at babel.advocate@gmail.com.