CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A South Charleston detective says it's not a matter of if, but when criminal charges are filed against Daniel Hicks, who allegedly brought more than 20 athletes to the area under the mistaken impression they'd be attending a prep school.

 "At this point, the investigation is still ongoing," said Detective Andrew Gordon of the South Charleston Police Department. "We've conducted a dozen interviews and we probably have a dozen more."

Meanwhile, West Virginia State University head football coach Earl Monroe said he was forced to try to clean up problems created after Hicks' West Virginia Prep Academy apparently failed to deliver on promises to the young athletes.

"On Aug. 1, kids were on our campus who believed they were coming to start school and play basketball and football," Monroe said. "One kid's grandfather informed me that he had brought his grandson here a month prior and was shown our campus and dorms and was told this is where he was going to live."

West Virginia law appears to allow literally anyone to organize a prep school with minimal oversight or regulation by state authorities -- just as Hicks allegedly did in South Charleston, where about 20 young men were found crowded into a small apartment Sept. 2. Authorities said Hicks was nowhere to be found, even though "school" was ready to start.

State Schools Superintendent Jorea Marple said recently that improving lax private and parochial school regulations, governing what are classified as "exemption k" schools, should be a legislative priority.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said since the incident in South Charleston, the department has "fine-tuned" the letter it sends to those intending to operate such schools to emphasize they are not being endorsed by the state.

Hicks was arrested Sept. 8 for violating the terms of his parole after serving time in jail for a January 2010 drug conviction in Putnam County, according to the state Division of Corrections website. He remains in jail.

Detective Gordon said he hasn't been able to find any legal problems with Hicks opening the school, but said the circumstances should be a reason for the state to consider changing the policy.

"After talking with a lot of the victims and their families, I know if they would have known about Hicks' criminal record there is no way they would have let their children be involved," he said. "When the general public seems to think they wouldn't let their kids be around someone who has a history like that then that should be considered when issuing licenses and certificates."

Chiteca Taylor, of Indianapolis, had high expectations when her son left home to travel to South Charleston at the end of August expecting to begin school and play basketball. If she had known about Hicks' criminal history, she said, she wouldn't have let her son plan to attend.

"I exhausted my whole savings and checking accounts to get him there and now I don't have a dime," she said. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy ... it was really a learning experience."

Hicks has said he made a mistake by allowing some of the young men and their parents to delay payments for tuition and fees, which apparently included payment for food and lodging.

"I was asked about the situation on the radio several months ago, and I said if it's a viable option for kids who need to raise their grades to meet admission standards, it could be a good thing," said Monroe, the WVSU coach. "Then, when these kids showed up on our campus and [Hicks] was running from them, I realized something shady was going on, and now, I don't have anything good to say about him, or the operation."

Monroe said prior to Aug. 1, he had heard rumors Hicks had been on campus showing kids around the college.

"Being in over your head and doing things unethically are two different things," he said. "[Hicks] had football scheduled as well as basketball, and he told some of the kids they'd be taking classes at the Kanawha Valley Community and Technical College on our campus, and staying in our dormitories. The football deal folded in early August."

Corey Saunders, 18, of Baltimore, said Hicks took him to the West Virginia State University campus in Institute and told him their sports facilities would be the ones he would use, and that he'd be living on campus in the school's dormitories.

"I wanted to attend [Hicks' school] to get everything I needed to earn a Division 1 scholarship," Saunders said.

One of the deciding factors for Saunders was the game schedule Hicks promoted.

"When I was looking up prep schools and I found their schedule, it was off the charts," he said. "We would have been playing the top prep schools in the nation, and I thought, this can get me the exposure I need.'"

On Sept. 13, another "exemption k" school, Family First Preparatory Academy on Charleston's West Side, closed its doors after a month of classes with no warning to parents. Thirty families were left scrambling to find their children another place to go to school.

James Lynch, a Family First spokesman, said incompetence and money problems led to the shutdown. "It was just mismanagement from the beginning," he said.

Liza Cordeiro, Department of Education spokeswoman, said all someone has to do to start an "exemption k" school is provide the state department a letter of intent identifying an "administrator" and the school's location.

"Otherwise, we as a Department of Education have no other oversight -- anyone can start a school," she said.

Neither Senate Education Chairman Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, nor House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, have returned repeated telephone calls on the matter.