Hey Teacher! gib me da money (to waste on myself!)

Former D.C. teacher's union head describes embezzling

I don't know why this sickens me as much as it does. Perhaps because I'd swear that I remember hearing this individual, and some of her union brethren and sistren coming on the local radio air waves demanding better laws than NCLB (No Child Left Behind), seeking more money, and more support for Teacher's pay, and Teacher's issues, and taking the typical liberal tacts in attacking anything and everything conservative, including President Bush and his policies and politics.

Anyway, enjoy reading this story from The Washington Post and if you can read it, thank a teacher and tell them never to bother joining "the union".

Bullock Brazenly Recounts Embezzling

Extravagant Sprees With Colleagues While Running Teachers Union Detailed

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page B01

Former Washington Teachers' Union president Barbara A. Bullock recounted in court yesterday how she dropped tens of thousands of union dollars a day in casual shopping and how she and her two fellow union leaders milked the union bank accounts to buy anything their hearts desired.
In her fullest account to date of the $5 million embezzlement of the union funds, Bullock described how she, former office manager Gwendolyn Hemphill and former treasurer James O. Baxter II never blinked at how much an item cost, focusing only on how to hide what they were doing. Bullock, 70, is serving a nine-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2003 to her role in the embezzlement. She is the star witness in the government's prosecution of her former friends, Hemphill and Baxter.
Bullock wanted a $50,000 silver flatware set that caught her eye, she said, so she charged it to the union's American Express card. Hemphill needed a wedding catered at her home, Bullock recalled, so the catering bill went on the union card. Baxter suggested that the three get season tickets to the Washington Wizards basketball games, so they charged the union.
Throughout the hour of unabashed confessional testimony from Bullock yesterday afternoon, some jurors and spectators in U.S. District Court stared in amazement at her account of thoughtless spending sprees -- and laughed out loud at her candor.
"Miss Bullock, would it be fair to say you like to shop?" Assistant U.S. Attorney James Cooper asked.
"No, that's not fair," Bullock said. "I love to shop."
Prosecutors charge that Bullock, Hemphill and Baxter stole from the union to finance their lavish lifestyles from 1996 until teachers complained about dues overcharging and an external audit found millions of dollars missing in 2002. Defense attorneys have said that Hemphill and Baxter were unwitting pawns, either tricked or intimidated by Bullock into taking union money and concealing the theft.
Bullock told jurors yesterday that she repeatedly charged the union for whatever she liked. "I like jewelry. I like china. I like crystal. I like shoes -- you name it," she said.
She said she knew Hemphill and Baxter used the union credit card for personal purposes as well and never cautioned them about spending members' dues on themselves.
"To be honest with you, that just never crossed my mind," she said.
Jurors gawked as prosecutors brought into court some of Bullock's more extravagant purchases, including a $5,000 sterling silver champagne cooler, the $50,000 silver set she bought in a New Orleans antique shop and a mahogany-black, custom-made fur coat that she said cost roughly $40,000.
Bullock said the silver set was mailed to Hemphill's home, where she and Hemphill arranged for the bills for the union's American Express cards to be sent to avoid detection of their embezzlement. She said she never looked at the bills, which Hemphill paid, but later learned that $29,000 in dental work had been charged to her union card. She testified that Hemphill and her husband had been getting dental implants at the time of the credit charges.

... more at linked article

The sad part is the sentence was only 9 years, which means after "good behavior" is counted, this thieve and her friends and accomplices will wind up only serving a few years for their crimes.

Now, if the school systems in D.C. were able to get back the money that these pieces of lesser humanity stole, and were able to use the money for say BOOKS, or classroom repairs, or materials, or any number of other things, then hey, wouldn't live be great?

Why do I mention the school system getting the money back? Because in some places (I'm not sure about D.C., but I know in some parts of the federal government for example) the union leaders are paid not just by the union, but many times are paid by the places the union serves. For example, in the federal government (to my knowledge) Union Stewards are given an allotment of time for union business that is paid for with their regular salary. So tax payers help pay for the unions to conduct union business on the tax payer time (and not just with the union dues that could come out of the pay that the union helped to negotiate).

Anyway, these thieves make me sick, and reading their tales of living the life of luxury isn't something I enjoy. I'd rather be reading tales of how hard life is in the higher security prison where they have been sentenced to a life of hard labor.

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