On August 14, Stennett Bernard, former president of United Steelworkers of America Local 4-421, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to six months of home confinement and five years of probation for theft from the union, now based in Auburn, Mass. (Worcester County). He also was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $175,312 and a special assessment of $200. Bernard and three other persons had been indicted in October 2010 for embezzling a combined roughly $7,000 from the union, at the time reportedly based in Brockton, Mass. The unusually high level of restitution reflects the amount of money Bernard conspired to pay his co-conspirators. He pleaded guilty to one count each of embezzlement and conspiracy this past May. The sentencing follows a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
