Tyrone Freeman stole from his union's low-income members to pay for a lavish lifestyle. Deciding on his sentence was difficult, the judge says.
The former president of California's biggest union local was sentenced Monday to 33 months in federal prison for stealing from his low-income members to finance an expensive lifestyle that included being married to two women at the same time.
Declaring that Tyrone Freeman betrayed the "sacred trust" of the workers he represented, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins also ordered him pay to about $150,000 in restitution and barred him from holding office in any union for 13 years after he is released from prison.
"He lost sight of his mission," Collins said of Freeman, once a rising star in the national labor movement who headed a Los Angeles-based local of the powerful Service Employees International Union.
Before Collins imposed the sentence, Freeman stood before the judge and cried as he asked for leniency, acknowledging that his "bad decisions" hurt the workers and his family.
"May God have mercy on me," said Freeman, 44, wearing a dark business suit. "I am accountable for these bad decisions."
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Last year, his wife, Pilar Planells, pleaded guilty to an income tax charge in connection with more than $540,000 she had received in consulting payments from the union while Freeman was president. To avoid prison, she agreed to pay about $130,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties, according to court records.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-freeman-20131008,0,678056.storyWhat is it about some of these blacks that ignore their income tax, take money that doesn't belong to them and use it for a lavish lifestyle, etc...
There's a new case almost every day in different states.
