One could say Harold Gilberson caught a lucky break: He’s not going to prison. On February 7, Gilberson, former president of Utility Workers Union of America Local 127, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming to six months of home confinement and five years of probation for embezzling $179,052 in funds from the Casper-based union. He also was ordered to pay $158,953 in restitution plus a $100 special assessment. Gilberson had agreed to plead guilty last November following a probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. He subsequently pleaded guilty in early December.
According to prosecutors, Gilberson, 63, an employee at a power plant in Rock Springs, Wyo., during 2011-15 charged a large number of personal items on his union credit card and then falsified the transactions in union financial statements. A subsequent Department of Labor investigation yielded the conclusion that Gilberson had stolen the money. Local 127 represents employees at three Wyoming power plants, and associated transmission lines, owned by PacificCorp.