On September 7, Laura Dixon, former office secretary for the Ohio and Vicinity Regional Council, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to 18 months of incarceration followed by two years of supervised release for stealing $170,216 from the Cleveland-based union. She also was ordered to pay full restitution and a $100 assessment, and undergo mental health and alcohol counseling. The union, formerly based in Toledo, since has merged into a Cleveland-based organization, the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters. Dixon was charged in February, and pleaded guilty in March. The actions follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General and Office of Labor-Management Standards.
