On January 26, Vance Valentine, former secretary-treasurer of United Transportation Union Local 524, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to filing false financial reports on behalf of the Willis, Texas (north of Houston) labor organization. He had been indicted last September. Three days earlier, on January 23, his wife, Sheila Valentine, pleaded guilty in that court to embezzling union funds in an unspecified amount. She, too, had been indicted in September. The actions follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
