Man accused of selling stolen COTA passes

A Whitehall man was arrested Friday after he sold Central Ohio Transit Authority bus passes that were stolen from Columbus City Schools, the Ohio auditor’s office says.

Jason S. Morris, 31, of Baywood Street in Whitehall, was charged with telecommunications fraud after police say he sold four bus passes for $100 during a sting operation. He had advertised them on a website. Investigators say Morris received at least 100 bus passes worth more than $6,000 from a Columbus schools employee who hasn’t been charged.

Those passes were meant to be given to some of the district’s poorest students, a district official said.

Mary Cockrell, a secretary for the Columbus schools’ transportation department, was placed on leave from her position Friday pending the outcome of the investigation, said district spokesman Scott Varner. Cockrell has worked for the district since 1997. She has not been charged with a crime.

The district will spend just under $500,000 on COTA passes this year, Varner said. The passes that the district gives to 11th- and 12th-graders to participate in internships have their names and photos printed on them. The passes in question were 31-day COTA passes that haven’t been personalized and are intended for use by homeless students and those in low-income families.

The district plans to examine controls on the bus-pass program, he said.

The investigation has lasted about four months. COTA officials first discovered the stolen passes being advertised online and notified Columbus schools officials. Then the school district went to state Auditor Dave Yost’s office and the Columbus police for assistance. Whitehall police also were involved.