The Romero family saga continues to wind down. On July 6, Evelyn Romero, ex-wife of John S. Romero, convicted former president of the United Industrial and Service Workers of America, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to eight months of home confinement and two years of probation, and ordered to pay restitution in a sum yet determined, for her role in a conspiracy to fleece the Colton (San Bernardino County) Calif. union, mostly its health plan, out of roughly $900,000. A week earlier, on June 29, their daughter, Danae Romero, was sentenced to six months of electronic monitoring and two years of probation, and ordered to pay undetermined restitution, for her role in the schemes. They had pleaded guilty, respectively, in June 2018 and March 2017 following a multi-agency Labor Department probe.
Union Corruption Update has described this case several times since the handing down of a 40-count indictment in January 2015 against the four family members based on offenses committed during 2006-14. The Loma Linda family patriarch and union president, John S. Romero, ran the show. Among his offenses, he diverted over $310,000 in health benefit plan assets toward real estate investments, another $300,000 toward family salaries, and $110,000 to cover a civil judgment against his son in an unrelated case. The elder Romero would be convicted by a jury this February on 14 separate felony charges. He has yet to be sentenced. Son John J. Romero, who served as union secretary, pleaded guilty in January 2017 to his role in the disappearance of nearly $800,000 from the health plan. Wife Evelyn Romero, who since has divorced her husband, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, embezzlement and permitting persons convicted of certain crimes to hold employment in a labor organization. Daughter Danae Romero pleaded guilty to theft from the health plan. The family that steals together doesn’t necessarily stay together.