Libby Stegner helped herself at the expense of union members for a half-decade. Now she has the pay the tab. On May 16, Stegner, former office manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1319, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania with one count of embezzling $41,861 in funds from the Wilkes-Barre union. Two weeks later, on May 30, she pleaded guilty.
According to prosecutors, Stegner, 50, a resident of Mt. Pocono (Monroe County), during 2005-10 willfully failed to deposit dues and other payments received from union members and then converted the money to her own use. An investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards led to an information count. The agreement, if accepted, would require Stegner to serve a prison sentence of no more than six months, provided she makes full restitution at or about the time of sentencing.