Legal // Current

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College officials charged using funds to buy liquor and pay parking tickets

The former chancellor at the City College of San Francisco has been charged with making illegal campaign contributions and steering public funds to a secret account used to buy liquor and pay parking tickets, prosecutors said Wednesday.

District Attorney Kamala Harris' office said it filed eight felony counts Tuesday against former Chancellor Philip Day Jr., including conspiracy, grand theft, misappropriation of public funds and using college funds to support a political campaign.

Two associate vice chancellors currently employed by City College — Stephen Herman, 61, and James Blomquist, 62 — also face charges.
Day, 63, was chancellor of the 110,000-student college from 1998 to 2008 and now heads the National Association of Student Aid Administrators in Washington.

Prosecutors allege that Day and Herman directed vendors who owed money to City College to make contributions totaling $70,000 to campaign committees for San Francisco community college bond measures in 2001 and 2005. They're also accused of diverting $28,000 to a committee promoting a statewide community college bond measure in 2006.

In addition, the men are accused of steering $45,000 in City College funds to a slush fund at the college's foundation that paid for alcohol at parties, parking tickets and a private club membership for Day.

Prosecutors say Blomquist asked a vendor to pay $10,000 owed to City College to the 2005 San Francisco bond campaign committee.

Michael Sweet, an attorney for Herman, said his client is innocent and has been cooperating with the investigation for the past two years.

Jim Collins, an attorney for Blomquist, said he has not seen the complaint, but "I don't believe that Mr. Blomquist did anything intentionally wrong."

Day and his attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

If convicted of all counts, Day and Herman face up to nine years in state prison and more than $300,000 in fines, Harris said. Blomquist faces up to three years in prison and $30,000 in fines, she said.

"We will not tolerate people abusing their positions of power and trust for personal benefit," Harris said. "In this age of diminished public resources, there can be no tolerance for that kind of behavior and activity."

All three men are being ordered to surrender to authorities by Tuesday. Bail was set for $75,000 for Day, $65,000 for Herman and $10,000 for Blomquist, according to the district attorney's office.The former chancellor at the City College of San Francisco has been charged with making illegal campaign contributions and... more

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19 hours ago

: ^#2

Mystery surrounds Jackson burial

It is not clear where his golden coffin was taken to after it was removed from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. And, in the... more

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19 hours ago

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Teen with 47 IQ gets 100 years in sex case

Texas - A teenager who has profound mental disabilities was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in a... more

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155 responses

29 days ago

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Strip search of 13-year-old girl was illegal, Supreme Court says

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.

In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said school officials violated the law with their search of Savana Redding in the rural eastern Arizona town of Safford.

Redding, who now attends college, was 13 when officials at Safford Middle School ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear because they were looking for pills _ the equivalent of two Advils. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs and the school was acting on a tip from another student.

"What was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear," Justice David Souter wrote in the majority opinion. "We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable."

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas found the search legal and said the court previously had given school officials "considerable leeway" under the Fourth Amendment in school settings.

Officials had searched the girl's backpack and found nothing, Thomas said. "It was eminently reasonable to conclude the backpack was empty because Redding was secreting the pills in a place should thought no one would look," Thomas said.

Thomas warned that the majority's decision could backfire. "Redding would not have been the first person to conceal pills in her undergarments," he said. "Nor will she be the last after today's decision, which announces the safest place to secrete contraband in school."

The court also ruled the officials cannot be held liable in a lawsuit for the search. Different judges around the nation have come to different conclusions about immunity for school officials in strip searches, which leads the Supreme Court to "counsel doubt that we were sufficiently clear in the prior statement of law," Souter said.

"We think these differences of opinion from our own are substantial enough to require immunity for the school officials in this case," Souter said.

The justices also said the lower courts would have to determine whether the Safford United School District No. 1 could be held liableThe Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having... more

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15 days ago

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4 on trial over Texas school fight club

Grainy cell phone videos showing developmentally disabled students forced to fight each other will likely be shown to jurors this... more

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4 days ago

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The Pirate Bay to Sue Sweden for Human Rights Violations

Today the Swedish Appeal Court decided that the judge who handled the Pirate Bay trial was not biased, despite his membership of... more

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14 days ago

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NYC victims fight back against iPhone thieves

Thieves are increasingly going after iPhones and other smartphones but victims now can fight back with technology. One device... more

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7 days ago

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Khamenei vows Iran will not yield ‘at any cost’

Ruling out political compromise after a harsh crackdown on the streets, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,... more

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16 days ago

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It's not slang! Nev. court permits ‘HOE’ license

A Las Vegas man won a courtroom battle Wednesday with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles over his "HOE" license... more

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19 hours ago

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Up to 6,000 exposed to hepatitis at hospital

A former surgery technician may have exposed thousands of Colorado patients to hepatitis C when she swapped her own dirty syringes for ones filled with a powerful narcotic, federal authorities said Thursday.

Kristen Diane Parker faces criminal charges for allegedly making the swaps while working at Audubon Ambulatory Surgery Center in Colorado Springs and Rose Medical Center in Denver.

Authorities say Parker admitted to changing out syringes containing a saline solution with ones filled with the painkiller Fentanyl. Parker injected herself with the drug, according to a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver.

An affidavit by Mary F. LaFrance, an investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says at least nine surgery patients at Rose have tested positive for hepatitis C, which is incurable. About 6,000 patients are being advised they may have been exposed and need to be tested.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne disease that can cause serious liver problems, including cirrhosis or liver cancer. The illness is treatable, but there is no cure. Symptoms can include nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, pain and jaundice.

Rose Medical Center officials told a news conference Thursday night they were working with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to determine whether Parker was the source of the virus.

It could not be determined Thursday night whether Parker had an attorney.
Parker worked at Rose from Oct. 21, 2008, until April. Hospital officials say she was suspended April 13, before they learned of the cases, and then fired. She had failed a drug test by testing positive for Fentanyl.

Parker went to work for the Audubon surgery center shortly after being fired. She worked there from May 4 until Monday, Dr. J. Michael Hall, Audubon's medical director, told The Gazette in Colorado Springs.

If convicted of tampering with a consumer product and other charges, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine on the most serious charge of tampering.A former surgery technician may have exposed thousands of Colorado patients to hepatitis C when she swapped her own dirty syringes... more