Lawrence Brennan, the head of the Teamsters union in Michigan has been found not guilty of charges that he headed a scheme to use $30,000 in members' dues for his re-election campaign.
Teamster officials told the New York Times that the verdict vindicated the union's president James P. Hoffa, who was embarrassed when a government-appointed investigator brought charges against Brennan last June.
The Independent Review Board, a government-appointed, anticorruption panel that helps oversee the union, said there was not enough evidence to convict Brennan, although it found some of the accusations about the embezzling credible.
Brennan could have been expelled from the union if he was convicted.
Brennan is president of Local 337 of the union and is the top Teamster official in Michigan. Before Hoffa became union president in December 1998, he was Brennan's administrative assistant.
According the Times, the review board found contradictory testimony by Local 337's secretary-treasurer, Colonel W. Myers, who, F.B.I. agents testified, first told them that Brennan had formed a scheme to double the Christmas bonuses of officials on the local's board. The federal investigators said Myers also told them that the bonus checks had been cashed and that the money had then gone to Brennan's campaign fund.
The review board said it then weighed that testimony against Mr. Myers's later recantation of his account.
The three-person board wrote, "We have carefully considered the impact of the agents' testimony, and while it is a close question, have decided that it falls short of the convincing quality we would want before finding that it should be held as implicating Brennan" and five other defendants.
Teamster officials told the New York Times that the verdict vindicated the union's president James P. Hoffa, who was embarrassed when a government-appointed investigator brought charges against Brennan last June.
The Independent Review Board, a government-appointed, anticorruption panel that helps oversee the union, said there was not enough evidence to convict Brennan, although it found some of the accusations about the embezzling credible.
Brennan could have been expelled from the union if he was convicted.
Brennan is president of Local 337 of the union and is the top Teamster official in Michigan. Before Hoffa became union president in December 1998, he was Brennan's administrative assistant.
According the Times, the review board found contradictory testimony by Local 337's secretary-treasurer, Colonel W. Myers, who, F.B.I. agents testified, first told them that Brennan had formed a scheme to double the Christmas bonuses of officials on the local's board. The federal investigators said Myers also told them that the bonus checks had been cashed and that the money had then gone to Brennan's campaign fund.
The review board said it then weighed that testimony against Mr. Myers's later recantation of his account.
The three-person board wrote, "We have carefully considered the impact of the agents' testimony, and while it is a close question, have decided that it falls short of the convincing quality we would want before finding that it should be held as implicating Brennan" and five other defendants.
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