| | SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A former Notre Dame football booster who
showered football players with gifts and sparked an NCAA
investigation left prison Monday after serving her sentence for
embezzling more than $1.4 million from a former employer.
Kimberly Dunbar walked out a back door to the Atterbury
Correctional Unit south of Indianapolis partially shielded by
Department of Correction vans lined up to block journalists' access
to her.
She was seen embracing an unidentified woman and a man who had
driven up behind the vans in a car and then sped off with her
inside. The man was later identified by prison officials as Jarvis
Edison, a former Notre Dame football player with whom Dunbar has a
child.
The university awaits word from the NCAA on whether Dunbar's
relationship with up to a dozen players will result in the school's
first major rules violation. The NCAA's Committee on Infractions
heard arguments from Notre Dame in June, but its enforcement staff
has not yet issued a ruling that was expected months ago.
An NCAA official, who asked not to be identified, said the
enforcement staff was looking at possible new rules violations
reported by the school last month.
The report includes allegations that a part-time tutor wrote a
paper for a student-athlete, that a student-athlete allegedly
misused complimentary tickets and that the same student-athlete
received extra benefits.
The official said the committee would consider all of the
allegations before deciding whether to penalize the football
program.
Dunbar, who was sentenced to four years in prison, was released
after serving a little more than a year. She earned credits for good
behavior and for earning an associate's degree from Indiana
University. She will remain on probation until Sept. 28, 2014.
Dunbar pleaded guilty last year to embezzling money from
Dominiack Mechanical Inc. between 1991 and 1998.
She has returned nearly $100,000 in cash and merchandise she
purchased with the stolen money to Jerry Dominiack, who owns the
heating and cooling business. She remains under orders to pay
restitution for the rest.
Dominiack, however, says he feels Dunbar got off too easily.
"It doesn't seem fair," he told the South Bend Tribune. "One
and a half million for a year's worth of time; that's pretty good
wages."
Dominiack still has a civil suit pending against several former
Notre Dame players, including Edison, Ray Zellars, Kinnon Tatum and
Lee Becton, to recoup some of the money Dunbar stole. Former Irish
receiver Derrick Mayes paid less than $10,000 in August to settle
his part of the suit.
The civil suit seeks $4.3 million from the remaining players and
Dunbar's mother and sister.
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