Lyndon Denney learned his lesson. And that’s a major reason why he’s not going to do hard time. Denney, a former financial secretary for United Steelworkers of America Local 2-1019, was sentenced in federal court to probation and ordered to make nearly $24,000 in restitution to the Otsego, Michigan (near Kalamazoo) union. He had pleaded guilty in November following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department.
Denney, 46, a resident of Hastings, over a four-year period beginning in early 2002 stole $23,627.32 from the union formerly known as United Papermakers & Paperworkers. He wrote unauthorized checks from a union account in order to pay off personal debts, and on occasion made unauthorized cash withdrawals from the union savings account. Denney’s lawyer, Sharon Turek, said her client was contrite. “He has spent many hours thinking about what he did to get to this point,” she wrote in a court filing. “He has had to face former friends and co-workers and his family and admit what he did.” (Grand Rapids Press, 3/28/09; other sources).