On February 3, Donna Roles, former financial secretary of United Steelworkers Local 14310 in Mt. Hope, West Virginia, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to one month in prison and three months of supervised release for embezzling funds in the amount of $76,420. She also was ordered to make $70,000 in restitution (she already has paid $1,775), pay a $100 special assessment, and undergo drug and alcohol evaluation. Roles, a resident of Beckley, W.V., pleaded guilty in October to having taken the money during January 2002-September 2005. The sentencing follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. (Charleston Gazette, 2/4/09; OLMS, 2/12/09).
Wisconsin Vice President Sentenced for Records Fraud
On January 30, Eugene Huss, former area vice president for Local 20 of the United Steelworkers of America, was ordered in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to make $2,000 in restitution and pay a $100 fine. He pleaded guilty last October on two counts of falsification of union records. The union is based in Kaukana. (OLMS, 2/12/09).
Ohio Council Secretary Sentenced for Embezzlement
On February 4, Roberta Dauch, former office secretary of the North Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to four years probation and ordered to make restitution in the amount of $27,537. She had pleaded guilty in September to embezzling funds in the same amount. The council is located in Sandusky. (OLMS, 2/12/09).
Kentucky President, Treasurer Sentenced for Embezzlement
On February 3, Christopher Ethington, former president of Local 2926 of the United Auto Workers, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky to five years probation, five months of home detention and 10 consecutive weekends of incarceration for embezzling $15,100.50 from his union. He also will have to pay restitution in the same amount plus a $100 assessment. On the same day, Mervin Patrick Getzen, former local secretary-treasurer, pleaded guilty in the same court to embezzlement. He previously had made $7,012 in restitution. Ethington pleaded guilty in October; Getzen did so the following month. The union represents workers at the Ford SuperDuty Truck Seating/Johnson Controls plant in Shelbyville, Ky. (OLMS, 2/12/09).
Cincinnati Regional Bookkeeper-Secretary Sentenced for Thefts
On January 29, Rebecca Montgomery, former bookkeeper-office secretary for the Eastern Regional Office of the International Association of Machinists, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio to one year of probation for embezzling funds from the Cincinnati-based labor organization. She also was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay a special assessment of $100. Montgomery, who pleaded guilty in October, previously had made restitution in the amount of $14,340. (OLMS, 2/12/09).