NEW YORK -- The state Attorney General's Office said Wednesday a former Brooklyn high school student was charged with stealing a Regents exam last June as the probe into thefts of the test continued.
A spokesman for Attorney General Robert Abrams said state police arrested David Hoffman, 18, of Flushing, Wednesday morning. He was scheduled for an afternoon arraignment at Brooklyn Supreme Court.
Police said Hoffman is a former student at Yeshiva M'Kor Chaim high school in Brooklyn.
Police spokesman Edward Delaney said Hoffman was indicted last Thursday by a Brooklyn grand jury on three felonies and one misdemeanor under the state penal code and eight misdemeanors under the state education law.
Delaney said the probe began last June 'when evidence was uncovered that chemistry, biology and math III Regents exams were stolen.' The exams are administered annually in June to state public school students from the ninth through 12th grades.
Scores on Regents exams are important to graduates who receive a Regents diploma in addition to a high school diploma. Many colleges only accept the Regents diploma and the state awards some scholarships based on test results.
'It has taken a year to interview all the people involved and it came back to Hoffman as the major source of copies of the stolen tests,' Delaney said. 'Of course others may have photocopied the tests for further distribution after they received them from Hoffman, but it all came back to him.'
Meanwhile, Abrams' office pursued its investigation, centering on New York City, of the theft of at least four of the 17 Regents tests students began taking statewide last Thursday.
As a result of the probe, spokesman Timothy Gilles said the exam's chemistry test, which was to have been given Tuesday, was postponed. He said the math II, French and biology tests may also have to be postponed.
The chemistry test was cancelled after the New York Post obtained a copy of the test answer sheet and published it on the front page Tuesday.
Students have been given the option of taking a newly constituted chemistry test Aug. 14 or using their current grades in the course for Regents' credits. Setting up the new test will cost about $250,000, officials said.
State Education Commissioner Thomas Sobol characterized the Post's action as 'beneath contempt,' and said the state is considering legal action against the newspaper.
But Post editor Jerry Nachman defended its coverage, describing the tests as 'hopelessly contaminated.'
