Pubdate: Tues. 29 Jun 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html

BAYTOWN COACH SUSPENDED AFTER COCAINE ARREST IN SAN ANGELO

A Baytown high school coach, arrested while in San Angelo to attend a
football clinic, has been suspended with pay.

Mark Nichols, 35, a varsity line coach and junior varsity baseball coach at
Ross S. Sterling High School, is free on $10,000 bail after being charged
with possession of a controlled substance by San Angelo police on June 17.
He was arrested by an undercover officer who reported seeing him snort
cocaine.

Nichols, who lives in Channelview, is barred from coming onto Baytown's
Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District property while the
district investigates the charge. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

According to police reports, drug task force members seated in an unmarked
car used binoculars to observe Nichols and Paul Graham, 40, of San Angelo
using a straw to snort a white powder. Police said they recovered a gram of
cocaine.

Nichols, who grew up in San Angelo and was attending a four-day clinic
there, and Graham were in the latter's pickup truck in a grocery store
parking lot when arrested.

Nichols was hired by Baytown's Goose Creek School District a year ago at an
annual salary of $34,162 to coach and teach health. He came to Baytown from
the Ector County Independent School District in Odessa, according to school
records.

Goose Creek's attorney Rick Peebles said the district has started an
investigation into the incident and will talk to police in San Angelo.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake