The head of a fund-raising group for the Air Force Academy's athletic department has resigned following his arrest in a prostitution sting.
Dermot Coll had served as CEO the chief executive officer of the nonprofit Air Force Academy Athletic Corp.oration since its establishment in July 2013, according to an academy statement. He submitted his resignation effective immediately on Friday, citing personal reasons.
Three days earlier, on Nov. 11, Colorado Springs, Colorado, police had charged Coll with soliciting sex for cash from an undercover police officer, the local newspaper The Gazette reported.
"Out of respect for Derm Coll and his family we wish to respect his privacy at this difficult time in their lives. We have nothing to add outside of the statement from the Academy at this time," AFAAC board chairman retired Gen. John Lorber said in a statement. "The AFAAC will rally behind this and continue its mission of supporting Air Force athletics."
The AFAAC provides direct support to the academy's 17 men's and 10 women's varsity teams, according to the academy.
The mission of the organization is to "generate the necessary revenue to support Air Force Intercollegiate Athletics" and "to support the Air Force Athletic Department mission of producing leaders of character for our Nation," according to its website.
Coll, 43, was a 1995 graduate of the academy who returned there in 1998 as an assistant lacrosse coach, The Gazette reported. He was promoted to assistant athletic director in 2002 and associate athletic director in 2005.
His Nov. 11 arrest was not Coll's first run-in with the law. He was charged with driving under the influence in 1996 and 2007 in El Paso County, according to online court records. In both cases, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving with impaired ability.
Coll was sentenced to 12 months probation and 24 hours community service in 1996; in the 2007 case, he was sentenced to 20 days in jail, two months unsupervised probation, 24 hours of community service and 18 months of "probation alcohol supervision," according to the court records.
It was not immediately clear if the academy was aware of his convictions.
Coll's arrest last week is the latest embarrassment for the academy's beleaguered athletics program over the last year.
Last December, former academy cadet Eric Thomas said he was ordered to break cadet policy while working as a confidential informant, investigating drug use and sexual assault among football players, and then abandoned by academy officials and expelled when he got into trouble. Lawmakers criticized the confidential informant program as being incompatible with the academy's honor code. The academy's inspector general concluded that the bulk of the demerits Thomas collected that resulted in his expulsion were not tied to his work as an informant.
The Colorado Springs Gazette in August published a story detailing allegations of heavy drinking, use of drugs including date rape drugs, and sexual assault at parties. A 2011 party led to an investigation of 32 cadets for alleged misconduct, three of whom – two football players and a female basketball player – were court-martialed, convicted and expelled.
And the school's inspector general last month gave the athletic department an overall grade of "effective" – the equivalent of a "C" on a five-category scale – and found some areas need to improve, although it found nothing requiring a follow-up legal investigation.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
