By the time PIAA baseball, volleyball and wrestling official David James Coligan of Canonsburg pleaded guilty in a 1993 plea bargain to disorderly conduct after allegedly impersonating a police officer and terrorizing three pre-teen girls over a dispute with his daughter, he had amassed a criminal record that included multiple convictions for bookmaking and a marijuana-possession charge he plea-bargained away.

William K. Miller, for years an official in basketball and football, entered a no-contest plea to a felony charge of interference with the custody of children in 2000 after allegedly taking a disabled seven-year-old child from an East Liberty day-care facility without the mother's permission and keeping him at his residence for over four hours until the child was able to call his mother and flee.

Despite those convictions -- which PIAA rules say should have banned all of them from officiating athletic events upon arrest -- these two individuals, and dozens of others identified in a nine-month Pittsburgh Post-Gazette probe, continue to work as officials because they never reported the crimes to the PIAA and no one ever discovered them.

Before 2006, the employment application that prospective athletic officials completed included no mention of crime. Since then, it has one query: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, what was the offense and when did it occur?"

Although no further background checks are done, the PIAA's by-laws allow the executive director to suspend anyone who is charged with a felony or other offense that make him believe they are a person "whose conduct on or off the competition surface is not conducive to the best interests of PIAA."

In numerous cases discovered during the Post-Gazette probe, nothing was done because the PIAA did not know about the convictions. In others, as many as 27 years passed between charges, convictions and sentences and the date of a suspension, removal or other actions while other convicted criminals continue to work as officials today.

In the relatively rare instance that anyone faced suspension or removal from officiating due to criminal activity -- 16 of the state's 13,700 officials have been removed in the past three years -- the official can apply for reinstatement after five years by appearing before the PIAA Board of Directors at a hearing and demonstrating "by clear and convincing evidence, that the reason(s) for removal have been satisfactorily addressed and that the official currently possesses the character, integrity, moral fitness and competence to be registered." The PIAA executive director, according to its by-laws, also has authority to place individuals under probation.

In 1986, state police started a second gambling probe of David James Coligan, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Washington County, acting on a tip from the same confidential informer whose help led to Coligan's conviction on gambling-related charges in 1983.

After four days of surveillance, state police obtained a warrant to raid an apartment where they allegedly found Coligan in control of $2,200 in cash, rice paper with numbers bets and football schedules, a plastic bag with torn bets and figures, a notebook showing betting customers owing him more than $5,500, and about an eighth of an ounce of marijuana.

Hit with gambling and drug charges, Coligan cut a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to one count of pool selling, bookmaking and operating a lottery, a misdemeanor. He accepted a $2,300 fine and a six-month-to-three-year work-release jail term that began Sept. 14, 1987.

He was licensed to officiate baseball and wrestling in 1989 and added volleyball a year later.

In August 1990, state police arrested him again on gambling charges, which ended when he entered another plea bargain that reduced the charges to disorderly conduct and a $500 fine.

In March 1993, Coligan faced eight charges after allegedly accosting three young girls awaiting their 7 a.m. school bus in Canonsburg.

A police report says Coligan drove his vehicle at an excessive rate of speed, skidded to a stop two feet from the closest girl, exited the vehicle and screamed vulgarities at the girls, shouting they "... better leave my daughter alone."

During his repeated threats against the girls, a police report says he allegedly told them he was a state constable and could put them in a juvenile detention center. He approached one of the girls, "putting both hands around her neck, but not touching her stated 'How would you like to be strangled?' "

In a July 1993 deal with prosecutors, Coligan pleaded guilty to a disorderly-conduct charge and paid a $249 fine. All other charges were dropped, and Coligan has continued to officiate games to this day.

He has worked games at West Greene, Bethel Park, Beth Center, Ringgold, South Park, Plum, Penn Hills, Peabody, Chartiers Houston, and Jefferson-Morgan, among other schools.

Bradley R. Cashman, executive director of the PIAA, initially said the PIAA had "not received information that the David J. Coligan registered with PIAA was charged with, convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to any offenses."

After the newspaper's queries, Cashman had an evening telephone conversation with Coligan, who informed about him about his records.

In a subsequent telephone interview with the Post-Gazette, Coligan said he has changed his life since the bookmaking arrests and that he was only defending his daughter in the confrontation with the children at a bus stop.

He said he "paid my price and moved on with my life" after his latest encounter with the law. "That's when I reversed my life from bad to good," he said.

As for officiating, he said: "In 21 years, I've proved I'm an outstanding official.

"All I can do is live today and tomorrow, and that's what I'm going to do."

After discussing the allegations brought by the Post-Gazette with Cashman, Coligan explained his criminal past to officials at Chartiers-Houston School District, and was removed from duty in a volleyball tournament.

In November 2000, when the mother of a seven-year-old disabled boy discovered he was missing from an after-school day-care center at the East Hills Social Center, his mother, the center's employees, even the street hustlers in the nearby projects spread out in search of the likable child.

Almost two hours later and four hours after the child was taken from the day-care center, the boy got a chance to call his frantic mother on the telephone to tell her he was with his friend, "Mr. Bill" across the street.

She told her child to immediately leave the apartment, then ran across the street to confront William K. Miller, 47, a certified PIAA basketball referee, at his apartment.

"I told him he owed me an explanation about what he was doing with my son, but he slammed the door in my face," said the child's mother.

That's when she reported the event to police. Miller was charged with a felony count of interference with the custody of children by taking the child from the day-care center "when he had no privilege to do so with knowledge that his conduct would cause serious alarm for the safety of the child, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such an alarm," according to charges against him.

In August 2001, he pleaded no contest to a second-degree felony in exchange for 36 months of probation. He continued to officiate basketball and football games through last fall, according to the PIAA. The Post-Gazette sent Miller a letter, but got no response. Cashman also provided Miller with a copy of the newspaper's query about the criminal matter, but did not disclose the substance of any communication with him.