LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A former union president who in 2007 had worked to start a recall of four Lake County supervisors was convicted on Monday of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the union that represents home health care workers.
In federal court in Los Angeles, a jury found 43-year-old Tyrone Ricky Freeman – former president of the Southern California-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Locals 6434 and 434-B – guilty of four counts of mail fraud, seven counts of embezzlement and/or theft of labor union assets, one count of making a false statement to a federally insured financial institution, and two counts of subscribing to a false tax return, according to the US Attorney's Office.
“This was a case about abuse and betrayal,” said United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. “Freeman abused his position as leader of the SEIU, and he betrayed the hardworking people whose interests he was supposed to represent.”
Freeman was indicted last summer. His 10-day trial began earlier this month.
At trial, federal prosecutors presented evidence that Freeman took money from SEIU Locals 6434 and 434-B by diverting reimbursement payments from California United Homecare Workers, a public-sector union that had close ties to the SEIU locals.
Freeman collected $2,500 per month from Local 6434 and the California United Homecare Workers, established in 2005 by SEIU and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to represent public sector employees working in the homecare industry in California, including Lake County's In-Home Supportive Service providers.
At the time of Freeman's involvement, California United Homecare Workers was based in San Bernardino and represented about 1,400 IHSS providers in Lake County.
California United Homecare Workers continues to represent Lake County's IHSS workers, according to Social Services Director Carol Huchingson, whose agency oversees the IHSS Public Authority.
“He's been out of the picture for a long time,” Huchingson said of Freeman.
Loretta Stevens, executive director for California United Homecare Workers – now based in Sacramento – said Freeman had “limited interactions” with the homecare workers union.
“He's a part of the past,” Stevens told Lake County News. “The union has moved forward. He has nothing to do with California United Homecare Workers.”
In the summer of 2007 Freeman – then holding the title of the homecare workers union president – had spearheaded an effort to recall four Imperial County and four Lake County Supervisors, as Lake County News has reported.
In response to a June 2007 Lake County Board of Supervisors vote on a proposal to give $1 an hour raises to IHSS workers who underwent drug testing, Freeman – who had insisted that the proposal hadn't been discussed in good faith during negotiations with the county – convinced union members to vote for pursuing the recall of Ed Robey, Anthony Farrington, Jeff Smith and Rob Brown.
Denise Rushing, who by that point had only been on the board about seven months, was not included in the recall threat.
Freeman and the union, however, didn't follow through on taking the recall effort to the ballot. The following January, the board approved a new contract with IHSS workers that did not require drug testing.
According to the federal case, from the beginning of 2007 through the summer of 2008 – at about the same time as he was engaging in his battle with the supervisors – Freeman allegedly had concealed from the Local 6434 Executive Board and the California United Homecare Workers Executive Board that he was receiving payments of $2,500 per month in addition to the regular salary that he received from Local 6434.
The indictment also alleged that Freeman took nearly $17,000 from Local 6434 in June 2008 by requesting the Local 6434 Executive Board make payments to another entity closely aligned with the union – the Long Term Care Housing Corp., a not-for-profit corporation organized in 2004 for the purpose of developing affordable housing for members of Locals 6434 and Local 434-B. Freeman then diverted those funds to himself.
Freeman was convicted of lying to Countrywide Bank when he told a bank representative that Local 6434 paid for his personal American Express credit card debt and the monthly lease payments for his Land Rover.
Freeman also used a Local 434-B credit card to pay $8,105 in personal expenses he incurred during a 2006 trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, which included expenses related to Freeman’s wedding ceremony.
In addition he was found guilty of subscribing to false tax returns in 2006 and 2007 when he failed to report approximately $63,000 in income he received during those tax years.
Freeman, who now lives in Pittsburgh, Penn., is to be sentenced April 22 by United States District Judge Audrey B. Collins.
The US Attorney's Office said he faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count of mail fraud, a maximum of 30 years for each count of making a false statement to a federally insured financial institution, up to 10 yeas for each count of embezzlement and/or theft of labor union assets, and as much as three years for the charge of subscribing to a false tax return.
A number of agencies were involved in investigating the case against Freeman, including the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor Management Standards; the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and IRS-Criminal Investigation.
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