HARRISBURG -- Another state Gaming Control Board employee is in trouble with the law, as state police have charged him with five counts of falsifying an official background statement related to his education.

Michael R. Rosenberry, 41, who worked for four months in the board's Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement, has been suspended without pay from his $64,000-a-year job since Friday, when state police filed the charges against him.

State police claim Mr. Rosenberry falsified his educational background -- specifically, by saying he'd earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 2004. The degree came from an online school named Stanton University, which some critics have said is nothing but a diploma mill that confers fake college degrees.

The university is now "dissolved," according to a state police affidavit in the Rosenberry case. He's been charged with five misdemeanor counts of false swearing related to information on his background form.

State police said that when questioned about his degree, Mr. Rosenberry "stated [he] had paid $700 for the degree in 2004 with his credit card."

State police added, "The defendant admitted he never attended one class through Stanton University, he never purchased one book, he never met with any instructors and he never prepared one paper."

Gaming board Chairman Tad Decker said he was very surprised and disheartened to learn about the state police charges Friday.

Mr. Decker said Mr. Rosenberry is an experienced police officer, having worked nearly 20 years for the Chambersburg department.

Mr. Rosenberry also had received recommendations from the Chambersburg police chief, the Franklin County district attorney, the state Chiefs of Police Association and a retired state police major, Mr. Decker said.

He said he plans to talk further to the state police about the charges against Mr. Rosenberry.

"If he lied [about his educational background], he's gone," Mr. Decker said. But if Mr. Rosenberry thought the bachelor's degree was real, even though he'd obtained it online, then perhaps he didn't lie and could be reinstated, the chairman said.

The Gaming Control Board can't afford more bad news about one of its employees. Mr. Rosenberry is the fourth one to be arrested since August.

Two high-ranking board lawyers were charged in connection with separate fights and disturbances at Harrisburg bars last year, and a third employee has been charged with homicide in the death of his girlfriend who fell 23 stories from a building in February.