SAN MARTIN
– Contrary to his own report, former Gavilan assistant football
coach Fred McGrew pleaded not guilty to impersonating retired NFL
linebacker Larry McGrew on Tuesday in South County court.
Asked Wednesday why he gave false information, McGrew said he
didn’t know that his court-appointed attorney, Jennifer Green, had
entered a plea on his behalf. Because he hadn’t been allowed to
speak in court, he said he assumed he had not entered a plea.
By PETER CROWLEY
SAN MARTIN – Contrary to his own report, former Gavilan assistant football coach Fred McGrew pleaded not guilty to impersonating retired NFL linebacker Larry McGrew on Tuesday in South County court.
Asked Wednesday why he gave false information, McGrew said he didn’t know that his court-appointed attorney, Jennifer Green, had entered a plea on his behalf. Because he hadn’t been allowed to speak in court, he said he assumed he had not entered a plea.
“I didn’t even know,” McGrew said. “This is news to me.”
Green said this kind of misunderstanding of court proceedings sometimes occurs with public-defense clients.
McGrew also said at the time that he was not represented by a lawyer in court, but Green and later McGrew said she was present.
Until further notice, the Public Defender’s Office will serve as McGrew’s legal representation. McGrew says, however, that he plans to have a lawyer from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People by his side in court.
McGrew was fired from Gavilan College on Sept. 9 based on his coaching style. The next day, Gilroy police arrested him based on Gavilan officials’ reports that he might not be ex-New England Patriot Larry McGrew, as he had claimed before and after he was hired. McGrew confessed to police he was not the former pro, as he had claimed to be, and that he had also given Gavilan a false Social Security number – one that actually belongs to an elderly out-of-state woman – to protect his income from an ex-wife’s claims, he said.
