Hollywood Man Arrested for Allegedly Prank Calling College and Pro Sports Coaches

By City News Service

A 32-year-old Hollywood man accused of misleading well-known athletic coaches by telephone into believing they were being offered jobs with professional and college teams was arrested early Monday at his home, police and broadcast reports said.

Kenneth Edward Tarr was charged with eavesdropping and was in custody on $20,000 bail, according to Los Angeles police Officer Sally Madera, who said it is a felony when a person is recorded without consent.

"Such eavesdropping is a felony and the investigation is ongoing. We want to see if there are additional victims," Madera said.

Madera would not elaborate further.

Additional details were provided by NBC News' website, which reported that Tarr "pranked big-name coaches from the NBA, NFL and college football into believing he was offering them jobs with pro or college teams."

Among the victims were University of Hawaii head football coach Norm Chow, Minnesota Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier and San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, according to NBC.

NBC said Tarr allegedly called former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts coach and NBC analyst Tony Dungy to offer him the head coaching job at USC.

Tarr allegedly boasted of his having "hoaxed" dozens of sports figures with his phone calls and expressed surprise his calls were returned.

According to the website, Tarr told Los Angeles sports reporter Fred Roggin he considered himself to be on the "new frontier of broadcast journalism and sports media" and supplied a video recording of a phone call he had with NBA coach Mark Jackson.