CIETC verdict: Tesdell guilty on all counts

Font Size:

By Tom Saul | Friday, April 25, 2008 |

(AP Photos)

An accountant for the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium, or CIETC, was found guilty Thursday in Davenport of conspiracy and 29 counts of fraud, another defendant was convicted of a single fraud count and a third was acquitted.

Karen Tesdell, the accountant who was accused of conspiring to hide large salaries and bonuses for CIETC executives and of ignoring rules regarding the use of federal job-training money, faces five years in federal prison as a result of her conviction.

Jane Barto, former deputy director of Iowa Workforce Development, who also was accused of trying to hide the salaries and bonuses and of attempting to block state and federal investigations, faces a year in federal prison.

Dan Albritton, a former CIETC board member, was acquitted of the single conspiracy charge against him and plans to return to his job with a labor organization.

It took the 12-member jury about 26 hours of deliberations over three days to reach the verdicts in a case that revolved around several allegations:

n Fraudulent use of federal money meant to train those seeking jobs

n Gambling and drinking junkets on CIETC time

n Sexual relations between agency CEO Ramona Cunningham and board members

n Corruption

The trial was moved to Davenport from Des Moines because of pretrial publicity.

Tesdell sat emotionless as U.S. District Judge John Jarvey repeatedly read off the guilty verdicts against her and through a poll of individual jurors as they were asked whether the verdicts were accurate as read. She had no comment on the verdicts outside the courtroom.

Tesdell’s attorney, Aaron Hamrock, said they were “obviously disappointed” with the outcome. He said the verdicts did not “fit the facts of the case.”

“Karen’s pretty devastated. So are we,” he added.

Barto’s attorney, Leon Spies, said his client was “obviously very pleased” to be acquitted of the conspiracy charge, the most serious of the accusations against her, but disappointed that she was found guilty of the fraud count, a misdemeanor.

“We will continue to pursue all available legal avenues to show her innocence,” said Spies, adding that those will include a motion to have the judge acquit her, a request for a new trial or an appeal of the conviction.

Albritton thanked his parents, his attorney and the members of the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, of which he is president.

“We finally got justice,” he said while bashing news media coverage of the scandal.

His attorney, Paul Scott, said he and Albritton were “obviously very happy” with the trial’s outcome. He added, however, that they “feel bad and disheartened for the other two defendants.”

The verdict shows that the jurors believed Tesdell “obviously committed fraud and conspired to cover it up,” said Matt Whitaker, the U.S. attorney for Iowa’s Southern District, whose assistants, Bill Purdy and John Courter, tried the case. Purdy referred requests for comment to Whitaker.

But, Whitaker said, he found it strange that jurors chose to acquit Barto of the conspiracy charge while finding her guilty of fraud for attempting to block the investigations.

“One of the overt acts of the conspiracy for (Barto) was obstruction,” he said. “It was strange that they didn’t find her to be part of the conspiracy.”

After nearly three years of alleged scheming by executives and board members to misuse $1.8 million in tax money to pay exorbitant salaries and bonuses, CIETC became synonymous in Iowa with government excess and misconduct.

In addition to gambling trips on agency time and sexual affairs, trial testimony focused on forgery of signatures on CIETC documents, a pattern of misstating employee work time pledged against federal grants and efforts to keep executive salaries and bonuses secret.

John Bargman, former CIETC chief operating officer, and Archie Brooks, former agency board chairman, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the scandal. Both men testified during the trial. Several witnesses placed blame for rampant misconduct on Cunningham, who has yet to face trial and has been ordered to undergo a mental competency examination.

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.