MUSICIANS (AFM)
W. Va. Husband and Wife Convicted of Embezzlement, Falsification
Former musicians union president Tom Bailey was convicted Sept. 11
of embezzlement and falsification of union records, five days after his
wife, the union's ex-ofc. mgr., unexpectedly pled guilty. Deborah Bailey's
confession before U.S. Dist Ct. Judge Charles H. Hadden II (Ford) was not
part of an arranged plea agreement with fed. prosecutors, and came as a
surprise to court officials.
Deborah and Tom Bailey had been officers of Local 136 of the Amer. Fed. of Musicians since 1985, when they were indicted in Dec. 2001 for embezzling $15,061 from the union. That same month, at a union hearing, union member Liz Nichols charged Mr. Bailey with using the union booking ofc. to promote his favorite bands, ignoring union rules and refusing to share with Nichols her own performance contracts. As a result of the indictment and hearing, the Baileys resigned their positions in the Local.
Mrs. Bailey's guilty plea might be explained by her husband's defense during the trial. His attorneys claimed that as President, he wrote only a handful of the deposit slips in question, had no time to audit his wife's work, and had no knowledge of the missing funds. But Asst. U.S. Attny. Karen George pointed out that while Mr. Bailey may have written only a few deposit slips from the union accounts, he personally made all of the deposits at the bank, and assumed several responsibilities previously handled by the union's treasurer. Under questioning, Mr. Bailey also admitted that it was his duty as union president to handle the union's bookkeeping. In the end, a jury in the U.S. Dist. Ct. for the Sou. Dist. of W. Va. found Mr. Bailey guilty of embezzlement and of filing a false financial disclosure form with the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9. [Charleston Gazette 9/10/02, 9/13/02]
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