On September 19, Aundrea Valerio, former dispatcher for Laborers International Union of North America Local 872, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada to two counts of embezzling funds from the Las Vegas union. She had been indicted in April 2010 with two other local office employees, Stacy Johnson and Aurora Rios, in a scheme that netted the defendants a combined $225,000, a sum later raised by prosecutors to $320,000. Valerio’s share was $13,500. Johnson was found guilty by a jury this past April and sentenced to a year in prison. Rios pleaded guilty that month and awaits sentencing. In addition to sentencing, the defendants must make restitution. The actions follow an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
