Lawrence DeAngelis might not have figured to be running Communications Workers of America Local 14170 as long as his predecessor had. But his tenure surely was too brief for his liking. On July 21, DeAngelis was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to a year in prison and fined $3,000 for stealing more than $60,000 from the union, which represents print shop and mailroom employees at several New York City-area daily newspapers, including the New York Times and the New York Post. He had pleaded guilty in April following a Labor Department investigation.
DeAngelis, a resident of Franklin Square, N.Y., became interim administrator for the union after its longtime president, Wayne Mitchell, pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzling about $250,000 from the union by writing phony payroll checks, most of which had bounced. Yet despite being closely monitored, DeAngelis went the criminal route as well. Federal prosecutors said he made out around $60,000 in unauthorized union checks to himself. In September 2009, his scheme discovered, he left his post. DeAngelis did pay back all the money he had taken, a likely explanation for his relatively short prison sentence of one year, as opposed to the five years he faced.