Deborah Anthony’s days of taking from the union till are over. On July 22, Anthony, ex-financial secretary for United Steelworkers Local 1196, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to five years probation, one year of which must be spent in home detention, and pay $34,134.47 in restitution to the union. Prosecutors had charged that during 2003-2004 she wrote unauthorized checks to herself and third-party vendors. She pleaded guilty in March. The local represents workers at the Allegheny Ludlum plant in Brackenridge, northeast of Pittsburgh. The sentencing follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. (Associated Press, 7/23/08; OLMS, 8/5/08).
Former President in Wisconsin Sentenced for Embezzlement
On July 18, Kim Van Handel, former president and acting treasurer of United Steelworkers of America Local 1980, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to five years probation, and ordered to pay $11,509.85 in restitution and a $100 special assessment for embezzlement of funds from the Appleton union. She pleaded guilty in April. (OLMS, 8/5/08).
Ohio Local Secretary-Treasurer Indicted for Embezzlement
On July 17, Tina Curtis, former secretary-treasurer for Local 232 of the American Postal Workers Union, was indicted in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on one count of embezzling funds from the Columbus union in the amount of $18,283 and one count of filing false financial reports. The indictment follows a U.S. Labor Department investigation. (OLMS, 8/5/08).
President of Indiana Local Sentenced for Thefts
On July 7, Curtis Pittinger, former president of Local 2043 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was sentenced in the Superior Court of Wayne County, Indiana, to a suspended sentence of a year and a half in prison, six months of home detention, and four and a half years of probation for theft of $10,300 in funds from the Richmond, Ind.-based union. He also will have to pay $10,132.33 in restitution, reimburse the union for its $7,000 audit, and pay $750 in court costs and fees. He had been charged last November. (OLMS, 8/5/08).