Sandra King had bills to pay. She resolved the problem in an all too common way: stealing. Two days ago, July 21, King, former president of the Federation of Police & Security and current president of the Alliance of Independent Workers, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to embezzling a combined sum of more than $57,000 from the Owings Mills (suburban Baltimore), Md.-based unions. As part of the plea deal, she will have to make full restitution. She had been charged in an information count this past June following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
If nothing else, Sandra King was a busy woman. During October 2014-September 2019, she headed the Federation of Police & Security, which represents private security guards in Washington, D.C. and Bethesda, Md. In addition, since 2014 she has served as president of the Alliance of Independent Workers, which represents employees at the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. According to prosecutors, King, now 62, a resident of Owings Mills, was busy for much of that time diverting union funds toward personal expenses that included rent, liquor and purchases as various retail outlets. She faces up to five years in prison at sentencing in October. Stealing seems to be contagious in these parts. In June 2014, King’s predecessor, J.C. Stamps, pleaded guilty in District of Columbia federal court to ripping off nearly $200,000 from the unions and/or related benefit plans. The unions were known then as the National Union of Protective Services Associations and the National Union of Law Enforcement Associations. Apparently, a change in names didn’t help things much.