Beatty gets 28-month sentence

Former CSUS employee George Beatty was sentenced to two years and four months in state prison on Tuesday. Beatty, who worked in the Admissions and Records section for 10 years, was arrested by Sacramento police on Aug. 23 for stealing Social Security numbers from admission applications and using them to commit identity theft. In September, he pled guilty to felony violations of both identity and grand theft. He was also ordered to pay an $80,000 fine along with serving jail time.

According to Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Brett Morgan, Beatty used the information he obtained at CSUS to establish nine different identities and obtain credit cards and services. He also used fictitious names and social security numbers to defraud over 20 different companies. "That was a good sentence in light of the fact that he had no criminal background," Morgan said.

Larry Glasmire, director of Admissions and Records, remembered Beatty but didn't know him well. "I think he should serve time; that's clear to me," he said. "Obviously, he sounds like he agreed to some kind of plea arrangements. He seems to be very sorry for what he did." He added that Beatty seemed "very willing" to sacrifice his retirement funds to compensate the victims.

Since Admissions and Records employees have access to the Social Security numbers of both enrolled and prospective CSUS students, Glasmire said that, upon being hired, they sign agreements "to utilize the information they have access to appropriately. They sign agreements indicating that they understand the consequences of not following the rules." When it comes to deterring other employees from committing crimes like Beatty's, however, "I don't know that there's a whole lot they can do," Glasmire said.