Sibley High students get 'A' for entrepreneurial zest, but 'F' for legality

The case started last winter, after students tipped off school admininstrators. A police liaison officer soon found his proof in the lot of Sibley High School: parking tags -- all bearing the same numbers and not matching the color used for student passes. .

Using the school database, the officer identified the car owners and summoned the 11 students to talk with him and the associate principal.

Ten of them said they'd bought the passes from one of two sellers, getting a steep discount from the $125 the school charges. One claimed to have found his forged pass on a hallway floor.

Now the two sellers, both 18, face felony charges of aggravated forgery for what prosecutors are calling a unique scheme to counterfeit school parking passes.

Andre C. Oliver and Nicholas C. Ritter, both of St. Paul, cost the school about $1,500 during last year's second semester and unknown losses for the first, according to criminal complaints.

"These kids are charged with a felony because that's what it is," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, noting that state law requires such charges when losses exceed $1,000.

Backstrom added that he suspects the teens didn't know felony charges could ensue from the activities they are accused of, and that it's possible they could be eligible for a court-diversion program for first offenders. Participating in the program would spare them from criminal records if they accept responsibility and the consequences.

Prosecutors have charged students with thefts at schools before, "but not a scheme to basically counterfeit parking passes," Backstrom said.

Over the past five years, he said, there have been a rising number of counterfeiting-type crimes involving the Internet and color copiers.

The Sibley counterfeiters apparently didn't reckon with anyone looking too closely at the forged permits, though. Their color didn't closely match the real tags, and real tags wouldn't all bear the serial number 566.

When the officer investigating the case confronted Oliver and Ritter he got different reactions. Oliver sat nervously for a bit outside the school office but soon ran off and played hooky, according to the complaints.

The next day, Oliver told the officer and the associate principal that he and Ritter bought one real pass for both semesters, splitting the cost. They copied the pass at Kinko's, laminated the copies, and their little black market was open for business, the complaint said.

Neither Oliver nor Ritter could be reached Tuesday for comment. A woman who identified herself as Ritter's mother said by phone that this was her son's first offense.

"This is getting blown way out of proportion," she said. "Could it get any worse?"