Former Notre Dame booster gets 4-year prison sentence

WARREN ZINN/Daily The Notre Dame football program has had its share of problems off the field. Former Notre Dame booster Kimberly Dunbar was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling money from Dominiack Mechanical, Inc.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - A former Notre Dame booster who embezzled $1.2 million has agreed to testify against Irish players she bought gifts for with the money she stole.

Kimberly Dunbar, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday for stealing from Jerry Dominiack, the owner of Dominiack Mechanical Inc.

He has filed a civil suit seeking $1.4 million in damages from Dunbar, her mother and sister, and five former Notre Dame players - Jarvis Edison, Lee Becton, Ray Zellars, Derrick Mayes and Kinnon Tatum.

Dunbar will be eligible for release after serving two years of her prison term. The former Notre Dame booster was also sentenced to probation from her release date until Sept. 28, 2014.

As part of her probation, she cannot have any contact with the 12 players she gave gifts using the money she stole. She can see Edison, with whom she has a child, only with court approval.

Dunbar clutched a tissue in her hand and dabbed her eyes repeatedly as St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jerome Frese suspended 12 of the 16 years in prison she faced on two Class C felonies.

Given a chance to address the court, Dunbar told Frese she was sorry for stealing the money. She then turned to face Dominiack and his wife in the front row of the courtroom and tearfully told them, ''I'm sorry, Jerry and Connie, for what I've done to you.''

Despite Dunbar's please for leniency, St. Joseph County prosecutor Michael Barnes insisted that she spend time in prison so that ''she simply can't walk away from this thing.''

''The fact is Miss Dunbar was in a position of trust. She capitalized on that position of trust, and she capitalized on it to the tune of $1.2 million,'' he said.

Dunbar also was ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution to Dominiack as part of her sentence and will likely be dropped from the civil suit because of it, Dunbar's attorney William Stanley said.

She'll also have to cooperate with Dominiack's attorneys as they pursue a civil suit to recuperate some of his losses and will have to testify if needed about the players to whom she gave jewelry, clothing and trips, including an outing to a Chicago Bulls game that involved five current Notre Dame players.

The gifts became the center of a school investigation started in February to probe Dunbar's relationship with Notre Dame players and possible NCAA rules violations.

Notre Dame then forwarded some of its findings to the NCAA, which ruled that Dunbar was acting as a representative of the school while a member of the now-disbanded Quarterback Club and informed Notre Dame that it could face sanctions for two rules violations.

Notre Dame athletic director Mike Wadsworth on Monday said the NCAA is still considering whether to penalize the football program.

The five current players involved in the trip to a Bulls game were cleared of any wrongdoing by the NCAA in August after the university made them pay back the cost of the trip by making a donation to a charity.

Wadsworth said school attorneys interviewed Dunbar twice this month to complete their investigation and have forwarded their findings to the NCAA, which has not made an indication when it might issue a ruling.

''We had notified them of our intention to interview Miss Dunbar in order to cover every possible avenue we could with respect to our investigation,'' Wadsworth said. ''There isn't any new information with respect to activities by any member of the team or anyone associated with the team or the athletic department.''

Dunbar, who had asked Frese not to give her jail time so she could stay with her 2-year-old daughter Jasmine, avoided reporters after she left the courthouse and refused to comment.

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