It’s a minor coda to a major story, but it doesn’t feel good to Paula Dorsey all the same. On June 22, Dorsey, formerly president of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin with one count of embezzling $532.50 from the Milwaukee union. She eventually pleaded guilty on August 11.
Union Corruption Update a few months ago reported that Dorsey, a longtime employee of the Milwaukee public library system, on June 25 had agreed to plead guilty to embezzling about $180,000 in union funds earmarked for an AFSCME-supported political project called Operation Big Vote. Her actual thefts were a little under $210,000. She admitted to union officials and prosecutors that she stole in order to cover gambling losses. The latest action follows a probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.