Maryland and D.C. labor leader pleads guilty to embezzling from unions serving security guards
Washington DC July 22 2020 The president of two unions for private security guards and other workers in the Washington region pleaded guilty Tuesday to embezzling more than $50,000 in union funds.
The plea from Sandra M. King, 62, of Owings Mills, Md., came six years after the unions’ previous president pleaded guilty to the same offense.
When King took over the unions in 2014, federal labor investigators “instructed King that the union funds were to be used only for the benefit of the union members, and that personal use of the union funds was a violation of federal law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Phelps said at the Maryland federal court hearing, which was held by video conference because of the coronavirus pandemic.
JC Stamps, a retired D.C. police detective who was King’s predecessor, was sentenced to nine months in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $192,091 in restitution after pleading guilty in 2014.
Stamps used the unions’ bank accounts to pay for his personal expenses, including hotel rooms, clothing and men’s fragrances, prosecutors said then. He also ran a security guard company and used the unions’ money to pay that company’s debts and to pay a salary to a friend.
Stamps founded the National Union of Protective Services Associations to represent security guards and another union for police officers. From 2004 to 2008, he defrauded both unions, as well as the health and welfare fund associated with the security guards’ union, prosecutors said.
Phelps said during Tuesday’s hearing that King became president of the union for security guards, now called the Federation of Police & Security, as well as another union she took over from Stamps, the Alliance of Independent Workers. The AIW represented communications, mortuary, medical records and child fatality staff members of the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, he said.
“She used union funds for her personal benefit by writing checks to cash, making cash withdrawals at automated teller machines, and making personal purchases using the unions’ debit cards,” Phelps said. “King used union funds to purchase liquor, pay rent on her apartment, and purchase items at Target, Walmart, Amazon, Apple iTunes, and at grocery stores.”
King admitted at the hearing to stealing $20,369 from the security guard union and $30,571 from the AIW. She also admitted that her personal expenditures often caused overdrafts from the security guard union, leading to $6,389 in fees and penalties.
The money came from dues paid by union members as well restitution payments made by Stamps, Phelps said.
King’s public defender, Katherine Newberger, did not respond to a request for comment.
King is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 19. She faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine. As part of her plea agreement, King will be required to pay restitution estimated to be at least $57,328.
