Former principal gets probation for taking test for student

WEST PLAINS, Mo. -- A former Doniphan (Missouri) High School principal was placed on probation after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently using a former student's identification when he took a college placement test for that student.

Ronald W. McCutchen, 54, of Park Hills, Missouri, entered an Alford plea and was "found guilty" of the Class B misdemeanor of identity theft before Presiding Circuit Judge David Evans on May 6 in Howell County, according to Ripley County Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Miller.

An Alford plea means, based on the evidence the state was going to present at the trial, there was a great likelihood of conviction. It still is considered a guilty plea.

Originally charged with the Class B felony of forgery, McCutchen pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after Miller filed an amended information with the court.

It alleged on July 17, McCutchen "knowingly, with the intent to deceive or defraud," used a name and date of birth, not "lawfully issued" for his use, in a Computer Adaptive Placement Assessment Support System test "taken for a former student ... knowing that the test answers" allegedly submitted to the testing agency under the student's name were fraudulent.

Miller said the misdemeanor plea was the result of plea negotiations with McCutchen's attorney, Sam Spain.

After accepting McCutchen's plea, Evans suspended his sentence and placed him on two years' unsupervised probation.

McCutchen, Miller said, was ordered to pay court costs and $300 to the Ripley County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund. Miller said McCutchen also surrendered his teaching certificate.

McCutchen pleaded guilty in connection to an investigation by the Doniphan Police Department that began Oct. 1, the same day McCutchen was placed on paid administrative leave by the district. McCutchen had been with the district for six years, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The investigating officer reviewed testing records that showed the student took the test in April 2014.

A review of the testing website showed another test was taken by the same student July 16. Those results were not entered into the school's records, but were faxed to Three Rivers College.

The former student, according to earlier reports, told the officer he was at Three Rivers when he received a message from McCutchen about "his new test scores."

Based on the new scores, the former student was given a scholarship, but he told the officer he felt guilty and did not return to the college.

The former student told the investigating officer he asked McCutchen to take the July test so he could get a better score.

A review by the school's IT department reportedly showed McCutchen logging into a high school library computer and the COMPASS website on the date the test was taken.