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Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Schrenko pleads guilty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko pleaded guilty this morning to defrauding the government and money laundering.
She has been sentenced to eight years in prison and is waiving her right to appeal. She faced a maximum 25 years on the charges.
Part of her sentence requires her to participate with the government in the prosecution of her co-defendants, A. Stephan Botes and Peter Steyn, and hand over any evidence against them. She will also be required to make full restitution, regardless of her finances.
Schrenko has also agreed to make a full accounting of her assets, which include a 1999 Toyota.
On July 12, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper will review a pre-sentence report and decide how much restitution Schrenko must pay. The judge could also make a recommenation to the federal Bureau of Prisons about where Schrenko will serve her time.
Schrenko’s attorney, Pete Theodicion, had said that neither he nor his client would comment until after sentencing as reporters followed them as they left the courthouse this afternoon. But when a reporter asked Schrenko if she was at peace with her decision, she paused and replied: “yes.”
During sentencing, Cooper asked her whether she was under a doctor’s care and if she was taking any medication.
Schrenko laughed.
“A long list of things,” she said, explaining that she is taking 12 to15 different medications, including drugs for sleep apnea, narcolepsy, a heart condition and a back problem, circulatory and pulmonary problems and osteoporosis. She is also taking anti-depressants and a tranquilizer, she said.
Schrenko said she’d been seeing a psychiatrist since 2003 “when all of this came up.”
Cooper asked her if she understood that she would not be paroled. Schrenko said she did.
Schrenko was on trial with Botes, a computer millionaire and South African national, and Steyn, his former chief operating officer, for a conspiracy to defraud the government of $600,000 in federal education funds earmarked for deaf and honors students.
Schrenko, a suburban Augusta educator who was Georgia’s school chief from 1995 to 2003, was accused of diverting about half the money to her failed 2002 gubernatorial campaign and using $9,300 for a face lift.
As word of the guilty plea spread, speculation began about the timing.
Phil Kent got to know Schrenko when he was the conservative editorial page editor of the Augusta Chronicle. But he broke with her about 2000 when he criticized her in print for her erratic behavior as schools superintendent.
“I knew then there were serious problems with her,” said Kent, now a media consultant in Atlanta.
Kent surmised that Schrenko pleaded guilty because Merle Temple, her former close friend, lover and deputy superintendent was set to testify. “She didn’t want to go through the devastating testimony of Merle Temple,” Kent said. “That would really peel the bark off of her. It [The testimony] was getting more tawdry by the day.”
Chuck Clay, a former Republican state senator from Cobb County and former state party chairman, wondered what was the root cause of Schrenko’s downfall.
“I don’t think it was just greed and ambition and pure vanity,” he said. “I think her own physical and psychological ailments brought her to the gates of prison.”.
He pointed to her erratic behavior at the end of her second term as superintendent and the criminal charges against her. “So many things border on the absurd,” Clay said.
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July 12 set for Schrenko’s official sentence
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A sentence date has been set for July 12 for former state School Superintendent Linda Schrenko, who pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to defrauding the government and money laundering.
At that time, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper will review a pre-sentence report and decide how much restitution Schrenko must pay. The judge could also make a recommenation to the federal Bureau of Prisons about where Schrenko will serve her time.
Schrenko, 56, was on trial with two co-defendants for an alleged conspiracy to defraud the government of $600,000 in federal education funds earmarked for deaf and honors students. Prosecutors maintaned she used some of the money to finance her failed gubenatorial bid in 2002 and some for personal reasons, including a facelift.
Part of her sentence requires her to participate with the government in the prosecution of her co-defendants, A. Stephan Botes and Peter Steyn, and hand over any evidence against them. She will also be required to make full restitution, regardless of her finances.
After entering the guilty plea, Shrenko, a suburban Augusta educator who was Georgia’s school chief from 1995 to 2003, accompanied her attorney to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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