Posted on 05/26/2005 9:52:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
COMPTON, Calif. (AP) - A former school board member received a two-year suspended jail sentence Thursday for charging more than $2,000 on a district-issued credit card while he was no longer on the board.
Basil Kimbrew, 51, pleaded no contest to a charge of misappropriation of public money.
Superior Court Judge Janice Croft sentenced Kimbrew to two years in jail, but suspended the sentence in favor of five years of probation, according to the district attorney's office. She also barred Kimbrew from having any contact with political campaigns, candidates or political causes during his probation.
In exchange for the plea, two other charges of misappropriation of public funds against Kimbrew were dropped.
In December 2002, Kimbrew pleaded no contest to falsifying his address so he could run for the school board. He was forced to resign from the board, but continued to use his school board credit card to pay for a personal party and a $241 hotel room in Carson, prosecutors said.
He previously paid $2,000 in restitution, they said.
Former Compton Board Member
Charged With Embezzlement
http://da.co.la.ca.us/mr/102204d.htm
October 22, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
(213) 974-3525
School board member arrested for alleged perjury
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20020515-0141-ca-comptonschools.html
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 15, 2002
COMPTON – The school board's vice president was arrested for allegedly lying about living within city limits during two recent elections, authorities said.
Basil Kimbrew, 48, was arrested Monday at the state Department of Justice office in Commerce. He was released that night after posting $50,000 bail.
Kimbrew faces three felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of state election code violations for claiming to live in Compton while living in Carson, court documents show. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Authorities believe that Kimbrew lied on election papers for the 1999 Compton school board elections and later in 2001 during the city's mayoral race. Kimbrew finished a distant fifth in the mayor's election but raised questions about his own residency by seeking Compton votes while his wife sought a council seat in Carson.
"We are basically alleging that when he ran for office, he listed his residence as Compton but did not in fact reside in Compton," said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Kerry White.
The arrest comes only five months after the state Department of Education restored full authority to the Compton school board. State officials took over the troubled school district in 1993 after discovering it had problems with mismanagement and corruption.
A former Compton school board member also is accused of lying about where he lives. Saul Lankster, who lost a reelection bid to the school board last year, faces three felony perjury counts and three counts of election law violations for claiming to be living in a Compton apartment while residing in Long Beach. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.
Kimbrew, who was first elected to the school board in 1995, has been embroiled in Compton's political scandals over the last decade. He testified in 1996 in federal court that he accepted illegal payments on behalf of a council woman, who was convicted of extortion and tax fraud in that case. Kimbrew was not indicted.
The Judge needs to be recalled for incompetence, imo.
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