April 09, 2008 10:19 am
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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The trial of three former job training officials continued on Tuesday as defense lawyers claimed their clients were victims of corrupt leadership at the now-defunct agency.
Federal prosecutors argued that the defendants were part of a conspiracy at the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium to pay executives excessive salaries and bonuses and to cover up the misspent government funds. They face charges ranging from conspiracy to fraud to obstruction of justice.
On trial are former Iowa Workforce Development deputy director Jane Barto, charged with two counts of conspiracy and obstruction; former CIETC board of directors member Dan Albritton, who faces a conspiracy count; and former chief accountant Karen Tesdell, who is facing 29 fraud and conspiracy charges.
Former CIETC CEO Ramona Cunningham also faces charges but wasn’t included in the trial because a judge has ordered a mental competency hearing in late May in her case.
In Cunningham’s absence, her co-defendants’ lawyers blamed her for most of the troubles at the agency, which was shut down after the pay scandal was exposed.
Barto’s lawyer, Leon Spies, focused on Cunningham and former CIETC board chairman Archie Brooks during opening arguments.
“This is a case about lies and deception and trickery, but the people who fell prey to that trickery and misapplication included Jane Barto,” Spies said, adding later that “it was done by people at CIETC, people on the board and others who Jane Barto had no control over.”
Prosecutors have said Cunningham and Barto had a close friendship and that Barto served as Cunningham’s facilitator rather than fulfilling her duty as deputy director and providing oversight for CIETC.
Tesdell’s lawyer, Aaron Hamrock, claimed that Cunningham was behind what happened at the agency.
“She was the boss and she called the shots,” he said.
Hamrock said Tesdell had nothing to do with approving bonuses and salaries, that it was a task left to Cunningham and the board.
Paul Scott, who was representing Dan Albritton, said his client did little work while serving on CIETC’s board of directors. Prosecutors accuse Albritton of helping change rules that allowed the excessive salaries to gain approval.
Scott also prepared jurors to hear prosecutors talk about a romantic relationship that developed between Albritton and Cunningham.
“It doesn’t prove anything. It is not evidence of any conspiracy, of joining any conspiracy, of joining any agreement,” Scott said. “It is manipulation and deceit, it is a red herring, it’s a straw man, it’s got nothing to do with the government proving its case against Mr. Albritton beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Former CIETC board of directors attorney Carl Salmons was the first witness called by the prosecution. He testified that the agency’s bylaws were changed without his knowledge to give the chairman of the board power to approve executive pay. Brooks was serving as chairman during the about three years that the alleged excessive compensation was paid to Tesdell, Cunningham and former chief operating officer John Bargman.
Brooks and Bargman, who were also indicted in the case, are expected to testify at the trial as part of plea agreements with prosecutors.
Also testifying on Tuesday were two officials who looked into the inner workings at CIETC — Corrine Johnson, a senior state auditor, and Dennis Swafford, a financial analyst for the U.S. Department of Labor. Swafford said that upon inspection the bonuses and salaries given to CIETC executives didn’t seem right.
“This is way beyond the pale for this type of work,” he said.
Johnson spoke about an audit that delved into CIETC’s operations after a budget analyst at Iowa Workforce Development raised concerns about how grants were being issued to the agency.
“We believed that there were more services that could have been provided (by CIETC) had the compensation not been paid,” Johnson said.
Tami Higar, a former assistant to Tesdell, testified that Bargman told CIETC employees to change entries on their timecards and that Cunningham at one time told her to destroy the documents.
“I came to work one morning and there was a box of old timecards on my desk and Ramona told me to take them out to the Dumpster right away,” she said.
CIETC was the primary government-funded job training organization in central Iowa until about two years ago when top officials were accused of raiding job training funds. Prosecutors contend that officials misled federal agencies and the Polk County supervisors who funded CIETC, and have claimed that agency leaders misspent as much as $1.8 million.
The indictment in the case said that in fiscal year 2005 alone, Cunningham and Bargman were paid more than $360,000 each, and that Tesdell was paid more than $129,000.
The trial was moved from Des Moines to Davenport because of publicity about the case. It is expected to take about three weeks.
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