On March 14, Thomas H. Rodgers Jr., former general chairman of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), General Committee of Adjustment 247 pleaded guilty in the Indiana 32nd Judicial Circuit Court, LaPorte County, to theft of funds from the formerly LaPorte-based union in the amount of $3,672.45. he then was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay full restitution. Rodgers had been charged last July following an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
