Beacon Journal: Third teacher pension fund ex-official convicted in ethics probe
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A former board member of the state pension fund for teachers pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting Cleveland Indians baseball tickets and other gifts from investment clients.
Jack Chapman, the third former official from the State Teachers Retirement System convicted of ethics violations, acknowledged that accepting the gifts from companies handling the pension fund's investments conflicted with his duties overseeing the system's finances.
Chapman, who resigned in 2004, declined comment as he left Franklin County Municipal Court.
Judge H. William Pollitt fined Chapman $1,278 and ordered him to pay $4,000 to the Ohio Ethics Commission for its investigation. He also was sentenced to three years probation, and a jail term of about a year and a half was suspended.
Chapman admitted to three counts of conflict of interest for taking the gifts from 1998 to 2003, including a golf outing and a ticket to the Broadway show "Hairspray." The gifts came from Frank Russell Corp./Russell Real Estate Advisors and Salomon Smith Barney, now Citicorp.
Another former board member, elementary school teacher Hazel Sidaway, was convicted in May of similar ethics violations, and Herb Dyer, the retirement system's former executive director, was found guilty last fall of improperly accepting gifts.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 1:02 PM
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