Cleveland Plain Dealer: 4 more convicted in pension case

Ex-board members took gifts from firm

Cleveland Plain Dealer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Reginald Fields
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus -- Four more former members of the state teachers retirement board, including the past president of the state's largest teachers union, have been convicted of taking gifts from an investment firm doing business with the $65 billion pension system.

That makes six former State Teachers Retirement System board members and its past executive director who have been convicted of ethics violations for, in part, accepting Broadway play tickets in 2003 while the group was in New York City on official business.

Michael Billirakis, former president of the Ohio Education Association, Joseph Endry, Eugene Norris and Deborah Scott agreed to plea deals that spared them jail time.

The four each pleaded no contest in Franklin County Municipal Court Tuesday to one count of conflict of interest in return for prosecutors dropping related charges for taking other gifts and falsifying financial disclosure statements required by the state.

Billirakis, Norris and Scott were given $250 fines, suspended jail sentences, one year probation, 60 hours of community service and ordered to pay $275 in restitution to the board. Endry's deal is similar, but contains 30 hours of community service and no restitution, because he later repaid the Frank Russell Investment Group for his tickets.

"I think it is clearly overkill," said attorney H. Ritchey Hollenbaugh, who represented Endry and Scott. "The system is unfair to people that make an innocent mistake.

"It's very clear they were given tickets as they entered the theater, and it wasn't until much later that they became aware that the tickets weren't paid for by the state teachers retirement system, but had been provided by a vendor," Hollenbaugh argued.

Columbus assistant prosecutor Lara Baker disagreed.

"There was an itinerary provided to each of the individual board members that specifically stated that Frank Russell was hosting," Baker said of the tickets to the musical "Hairspray."

David Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, which investigated the case and recommended criminal charges, said the board members had come to expect royal treatment, but as volunteers for a state board they should have known better.

"It is particularly suspect when you think that this is a retirement system of public money," Freel said. "Why would these members have ever thought public retirement system money could pay for their personal entertainment?"

Former board member Hazel Sidaway took her case to trial in April and lost. She was convicted of accepting the musical tickets and for taking tickets to a Cleveland Indians game in 2001 from another investment firm.

Former member Jack Chapman pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges in June for taking sports and theater tickets.

And former executive director Herb Dyer pleaded no contest last September to failing to report gifts he received and was fined. Dyer was forced out in 2003 following revelations of extravagant spending by the teachers retirement system.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: rfields@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272