Nonprofit News and Comment

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“Soaring Charges by a Contractor With Special Education.” By David M. Halbfinger. New York Times. April 11, 2013. Cheon H. Park ran a company that had begun to prosper on government contracts, but he had bigger ambitions. So he tore down his shabby headquarters on a quiet street in Flushing, Queens, and replaced it with a lavish three-story building that had marble floors, granite countertops, red carpets and a soaring chandelier. Then he brought in the clients: 3- and 4-year-olds with developmental disabilities. Scores of them came each weekday, their parents lured by the attractive surroundings and the promises of state-of-the-art therapy. New York City and New York State paid for it all, from the expensive renovations to the services themselves, at a rate of as much as $98 an hour. But many of the children entrusted to Mr. Park’s company did not get the care they needed, according to numerous interviews with workers and parents and an extensive analysis of government records. Some children whose first language was Chinese languished in classes taught in Spanish or Korean. Others who were supposed to receive individual tutoring were thrown into groups of four or more children, all with different types of disabilities. Some children did not have disabilities at all and were simply being used to generate billings, the interviews show. “We had kids who were little rocket scientists being put in there — who could read and write at a third-grade level,” said Angel Tirado, a former aide to Mr. Park. Mr. Park’s contracts were canceled by the city at the beginning of this school year after The New York Times questioned officials about his company. But his success until then underscores how private contractors have taken advantage of this generously financed but poorly regulated segment of the special-education system, often called special ed pre-K, according to an investigation by The Times.

“Dirt Flies at the Garden Club (Even Before Spring Planting).” By Vivian Yee. New York Times. April 12, 2013. It started with the accusations of sex behind the back pond. Of late-night parties that begot stitches and adultery. Favoritism. Misspending. Bullying. Since then, the police have been called, e-mail access has been revoked and Robert’s Rules of Order repeatedly cited. Expletives have been tossed around. Herb lovers have nearly come to blows. A toolshed burned to the ground; the word arson was uttered. So goes life these days at the Roosevelt Island Garden Club, where palace intrigue surrounding the garden presidency has grown as abundant as the daffodils, organic vegetables and lazy cats that populate this speck of earth in the middle of the New York City map. This is no garden-variety garden dispute. After all, in a neighborhood where most people are renters, a patch of flowers and shrubbery to call one’s own is no insignificant thing — especially when the waiting list for such a plot can outstrip the lines for the most coveted kindergartens.

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“Abuse Charge at Academy Stirs Inquiry,” New York Times. March 31, 2013. {For story, go to Education: Private & Parochial Schools].

“A Reporter at Large: The Master: A charismatic teacher enthralled his students. Was he abusing them?” New Yorker. April 1, 2013. [For story, go to Education: Private & Parochial Schools].

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“San Diego Ex-Mayor Confronts $1 Billion Gambling Problem.” By Jennifer Medina. New York Times. February 14, 2013. A former mayor of San Diego spent the last decade wagering more than a billion dollars at casinos across the country, eventually liquidating her savings, auctioning her belongings, selling off real estate, borrowing from friends and taking more than $2 million from a charity set up by her late husband, a fast-food tycoon. The former mayor, Maureen O’Connor, 66, blamed an addiction to gambling aggravated by a brain tumor for the gargantuan spree. Her lawyers said that while she had made well over a billion dollars in bets at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and San Diego, her actual net losses were around $13 million. Federal prosecutors said it was impossible to know precisely how much Ms. O’Connor had lost over those years, but she emerged with her fortune gone and her health shattered. She took out second and third mortgages on her La Jolla, Calif., home to pay for the gambling. The former Southern California political power broker, whose husband, Robert O. Peterson, founded the Jack-in-the-Box fast-food chain, appeared in court in San Diego on Thursday to answer to charges that she had stolen money from her late husband’s foundation to fuel her addiction. She walked unsteadily into court, leaning on a cane and appearing wobbly and distraught. She teared up as she told reporters, “Those of you who know me here would know that I never meant to hurt the city that I love.” Ms. O’Connor was not accused of taking money from the city, but the money in her husband’s trust would probably have gone to local charities. “I always intended to pay it back and I still intend to pay it back,” she said.
Related story:
“San Diego ex-mayor used charity funds to cover gambling debts; Maureen O’Connor, San Diego’s first female mayor, admits in court that she took more than $2 million from her late husband’s foundation to pay casinos. She agrees to repay the money in a plea deal.” Los Angeles Times. February 15, 2013.

“New Scrutiny for a Bequest to an Order of Catholics.” By Sharon Otterman. New York Times. February 15, 2013. When Gabrielle D. Mee, a wealthy Rhode Island widow, left her $60 million fortune to a powerful Catholic order called the Legion of Christ in 2008, revelations had already begun to surface that its charismatic founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, had molested under-age seminarians and fathered several children. But a niece of Mrs. Mee, Mary Lou Dauray, came to believe that her aunt must have been kept in the dark about Father Maciel’s misdeeds, so that her fortune would go to the order. On Friday, thousands of pages of documents in a 2009 lawsuit that Mrs. Dauray filed were released to the public, shedding additional light on how the Legion managed information about its founder and came to control Mrs. Mee’s money. The documents had been sealed by the court, but several news organizations, including The New York Times, sued to have them released. A Rhode Island judge ruled on Thursday that there was no reason they should not be made public. They had not been fully reviewed by The Times by Friday night. They include depositions given by top leaders of the Legion, including the Rev. Luis Garza, the current head of the Legion’s North American operations. Widowed in 1985, Mrs. Mee pledged her life to the order at age 80, and she promised that she would eventually release her assets to the organization. The papers explain how the order came to control most aspects of her life and include a deposition, given for another lawsuit, in which she explained how happy she was living with the order. Mrs. Dauray’s lawsuit was dismissed by a Rhode Island Superior Court judge last year, after he ruled that she lacked the legal standing to dispute the terms of her aunt’s will. Bernard A. Jackvony, Mrs. Dauray’s lawyer, said on Friday that he was filing an appeal. “She was a very believing and trusting woman,” said Mrs. Dauray, 72, who lives in California. She said she wanted her aunt’s fortune to go to other Catholic charities. “I know that she wouldn’t have given this money if she had known about the founder,” she said.

“Livestrong Not Immune From Turmoil Surrounding Its Founder.” By Mary Pilon and Andrew W. Lehren. New York Times. February 15, 2013. Craig Staley could barely keep up with the demand for Livestrong merchandise at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop in Austin, Tex., in 2008, when Lance Armstrong announced that he would return to professional cycling after a brief retirement. Customers at the store, co-owned by Armstrong, stocked up on yellow bracelets, T-shirts, sunglasses, hats and water bottles bearing the name of Armstrong’s foundation, Livestrong, which had raised millions to aid cancer research and survivors. For customers, the merchandise stood for hope and victory. “Maybe you call it the Lance effect,” Staley, a general manager at Mellow Johnny’s, said when recalling the popularity of Livestrong gear. But sales of Livestrong items at Mellow Johnny’s declined after Armstrong rode in the 2009 Tour de France. “A lot of these folks aren’t flocking here to get a connection to Lance like they used to be,” he said. Armstrong has experienced an extraordinary fall from grace in recent months. The United States Anti-Doping Agency released a report saying he had participated in an elaborate doping program and bullied others to cheat with him so he could succeed. After years of adamantly denying all allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, Armstrong admitted last month that some of the accusations were true. Now, in an effort to have his lifetime competition ban reduced, he is talking with antidoping officials about possibly disclosing who helped him and how he covered up his doping for nearly a decade. With Armstrong involved in one of the biggest doping scandals in sports history, will consumers continue to buy licensed Livestrong merchandise? For the Livestrong Foundation, the question is significant. Last year, it generated more than $48 million in revenue, much of which was received before Armstrong was stripped in October of his seven Tour de France titles. Of that total, about a third, $16.79 million, came from the sale of licensed Livestrong products and merchandise. Rae Bazzarre, a Livestrong spokeswoman, said the sale of Livestrong products was down about 17 percent since 2010.
Related story:
“Livestrong Tattoos as Reminder of Personal Connections, Not Tarnished Brand.” New York Times. February 15, 2013.

“Hundreds sue Ky. hospital over heart procedures; The hospital and 11 cardiologists are accused of conspiring to perform unnecessary procedures to unjustly enrich themselves.” By Andrew Wolfson, USA Today/Louisville Courier-Journal. February 17, 2013. After enduring at least two-dozen heart procedures over two decades, disabled former meat cutter Edward Marshall decided in September 2010 that he’d been treated long enough by cardiologists at St. Joseph London hospital. So he saw a specialist in Lexington, who told him some disturbing news: An artery treated just months earlier was barely blocked, and there had been no need for Dr. Sandesh “Sam” Patil to enlarge it with a balloon angioplasty, then prop it open with a stent. “I would have not carried out this procedure,” the Lexington cardiologist, Dr. Michael R. Jones, told Marshall in a letter that is included in the court record. Marshall, 67, who lives in London, became the first of nearly 400 people to sue the London hospital and 11 cardiologists, including Patil, claiming they conspired to perform unnecessary, risky and often painful heart procedures to unjustly enrich themselves. The suits, which also name the hospital’s parent company, Catholic Health Initiatives, allege that two patients died and that the others will be required to take dangerous blood-thinning medications for life and are at risk of other potentially fatal complications. The hospital and other physicians named as defendants deny the allegations. “These were very sick people who needed the interventions, and got them,” said the hospital’s lead lawyer, Todd Thompson, who calls the conspiracy allegations “Alice in Wonderland stuff.” But records show the plaintiffs aren’t the only ones who have Patil and the London hospital in their sights.

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“Another Armstrong Charity Cuts Ties.” By Rachel Bachman. Wall Street Journal. January 27, 2013. Former cyclist Lance Armstrong has been dropped by a charity he co-founded in the wake of his public doping confession. Athletes for Hope, a six-year-old group based in Bethesda, Md., took down Armstrong’s photo from its website after a Jan. 17 interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he admitted doping. The group’s chief executive, Ivan Blumberg, said the decision to part company with Mr. Armstrong was “mutual” and “sort of came to a head with [that] interview.” The move comes two months after Mr. Armstrong separated from Livestrong, the cancer charity he founded. Major sponsors of Mr. Armstrong, including Nike Inc. and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, dropped him after the October release of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s decision detailing why it was banning him for life from competition. Mr. Armstrong, through a spokesman, declined to comment. Launched in April 2007 with an announcement on “Good Morning America,” Athletes for Hope began as a collaboration between three principals: Mr. Armstrong, tennis star Andre Agassi and women’s soccer star Mia Hamm. The charity wasn’t created to address any single problem, but to encourage professional and Olympic athletes to learn about and connect with existing charities rather than establishing their own foundations, which often carry wasteful overhead. The charity’s original roster listed 12 “founding athletes,” including boxer Muhammad Ali, baseball’s Cal Ripken Jr., tennis pro Andrea Jaeger, Nascar driver Jeff Gordon, Olympic track-and-field star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, skateboard icon Tony Hawk and football’s Warrick Dunn. In the “Good Morning America” introduction, host Robin Roberts called the group “a dream team of philanthropy.”

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“Scientology Lawsuit Alleges Fraud, Deception, Mishandling Of Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars.” By Meredith Bennett-Smith. Huffington Post. January 24, 2013. fraud, deception and the mishandling of hundreds of thousands — possibly millions — of dollars in donations secured by the controversial organization. Luis and Rocio Garcia of Irvine, Calif., filed the 35-page complaint on Wednesday in a Tampa, Fla., federal court. The couple named five church entities in the suit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages. The Garcias allege that, over the years, the church redirected hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations the couple had earmarked specifically for the construction of a massive “Super Power” building in downtown Clearwater, Fla. The building is still under construction, though the church broke ground on the project 14 years ago, reports the Tampa Bay Times. West Palm Beach attorney Theodore Babbitt, the lawyer for the Garcias, said that his clients “seek to highlight the secular commercial nature of the fraudulent activities and inappropriate business dealings which give rise to this complaint,” according to the Tampa Tribune. Babbitt said that when the couple asked the church for their money back, they were excommunicated. Tony Ortega, former Village Voice editor and blogger for The Huffington Post, notes that while the church may have tax-exempt status (granted by the IRS in 1993), the organization is still required to give refunds to members who ask for them. The lawsuit and ensuing press conference certainly come at an inopportune time for the Church of Scientology, still reeling from the fallout over Lawrence Wright’s tell-all book, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief,” praised last weekend in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Related story:
“Lawsuit alleges purpose of Scientology is ‘taking people’s money’.” NBC News. January 24, 2012.

“Dakota Indian Foundation’s spending at issue; Critics say the charity spends just 16 percent of its expenditures and scholarships for Native Americans. The rest goes for fundraising costs and administration expenses.” USA Today. January 27, 2013. On paper, the Dakota Indian Foundation has had a good run the past few years. The charity’s most recent tax filings show it raises $1.2 million a year, a nice sum for a small group trying to find money for college scholarships for Native Americans. But a closer look at the 34-page tax filing reveals red flags. The Chamberlain, S.D., organization falls well short of what experts say charities should spend on their programs. In the case of Dakota Indian Foundation, program services represented 16 percent of its expenditures. The rest was eaten up by fundraising costs and administration expenses. In contrast, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Dakota, which is roughly the same size, spends 84 percent of its contributions on program expenses. Last month, the Oregon Department of Justice released a list of its “20 worst charities.” The Dakota Indian Foundation was on it. No law dictates how much charities spend on their stated missions, said Sandra Miniutti, the vice president of marketing for Charity Navigator, a watchdog group. However, most spend at least 75 percent. For John Beheler, the executive director of Dakota Indian Foundation, the criticism is biting, and he said critics don’t have a full understanding of the organization and its challenges. He was unaware the organization was flagged by the Oregon attorney general. “That’s not very nice,” he said.

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“California: Scouts Told to Release Files.” New York Times/Associated Press. New York Times. January 8, 2013. The Boy Scouts of America must release two decades’ worth of files detailing sexual abuse accusations after the California Supreme Court refused the organization’s bid to keep the records confidential. A Santa Barbara County court ruled last year that the files must be turned over to lawyers for a former scout who has accused a leader of molesting him in 2007. The files, the former scout says, will expose “a culture of hidden sexual abuse.” The organization says it will comply with the order.

“New Jersey Symphony President Quits After Questions on His Past.” By Daniel J. Wakin. New York Times. January 11, 2013. Richard Dare made a splash last year as an outspoken entrepreneur turned arts administrator and started work on Jan. 2 as the president and chief executive of the New Jersey Symphony, with the promise that his business acumen would bring it new luster. On Friday, nine days later, he resigned, citing a 1996 case in which he was charged with an “attempted lewd act upon” a 15-year-old girl, whom he later married. In a statement, Mr. Dare, 48, said he believed that “media attention to my family’s personal life will harm the organization and musicians I cherish, as well as needlessly embarrass my wife.” Stephen Sichak, the orchestra’s co-chairman, said it knew about the charge when Mr. Dare was hired but that inquiries into the case from “friends of the symphony,” not reporters, began coming in. “Concerns about the public perception of this subject matter” emerged, Mr. Sichak said. “The situation has become a distraction and is keeping us from being able to do what we do best,” making music, so the board accepted Mr. Dare’s resignation. The development came as a New York Times investigation into Mr. Dare’s background raised questions about aspects of his résumé and business accomplishments. Former associates have suggested that he exaggerated the extent of his business dealings, and evidence to support some of his claims — like his having testified frequently before Congress — could not immediately be found. Mr. Dare declined to answer questions during a conference call with New Jersey Symphony officials but said that he would consider e-mailed queries. He did not respond to an e-mail sent late Friday afternoon, although his lawyer, Daniel N. Arshack, responded in the evening to several questions about his client’s background.

“A Pedophile in Plain Sight.” By Eric L. Lewis. New York Times. January 12, 2013. Just after Christmas, Poly Prep Country Day School, the venerable Brooklyn institution, settled a lawsuit alleging a more than 40-year cover-up of the predatory pedophilia of its legendary football coach, Philip Foglietta. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but the lawsuit charged that school administrators were repeatedly informed from the 1960s until his forced retirement in 1991 that Mr. Foglietta was sexually abusing boys — on campus, in his apartment and during trips. Mr. Foglietta, who died in 1998, fondled and raped dozens, if not hundreds, of children. But there is little doubt that senior administrators were told about the abuse on multiple occasions. The lawsuit recounts specific meetings between boys, their parents, the headmaster and the athletic director. That athletic director, who went on to become dean of students and assistant headmaster, reportedly witnessed abuse in the showers and walked away. In 1991, the headmaster allegedly told one of the victims that Coach was a bitter, sick old man who should be left alone. Coach Phil was powerful, intimidating, successful, not to be trifled with. And so for a quarter-century, he freely abused vulnerable boys, virtually in plain sight. What should we have done? We should have told our parents and teachers and other school officials that Coach was hanging out by the showers and it made us feel weird. Maybe we should have reached out to the boys who were riding off in the Impala and warned them away. We were just kids, of course, but in retrospect our lack of curiosity, our lack of action and our lack of courage were inexcusable. Sexual abuse of children presents itself in confusing, ambiguous ways, so pedophilia education should be a mandatory part of the curriculum, repeated in elementary, middle and high school, at age-appropriate levels of detail. Abused children need to understand that they have done nothing wrong, that it is safe to come forward. Shame ruined lives at Poly Prep; our great successes of youth have turned to ashes. I am angry at the school for failing to protect so many boys. But I am also ashamed of myself, that I was so intimidated, so desperate for Coach’s approval, so eager to be a boy winning football games, that I failed to be the man I know I should have been.

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“Top executives did not report suspected Scout abuse cases, files show; Despite lapses, the files indicate that the top officials may have followed policy and violated no laws.” By Jason Felch. Los Angeles Times. December 30, 2012. In 1987, a Scoutmaster at a camp in northeast Georgia was accused of fondling a boy in a sleeping bag. The local Boy Scouts executive, Wayne Brock, followed Scouting procedures and documented the allegation before forwarding it to the group’s Texas headquarters, where it was added to confidential files on leaders suspected of molesting children. The Scoutmaster was expelled and left town in a matter of days. The police were never told, interviews and records show. Today, Brock is the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America. As he and his recent predecessors rose through the ranks of Scouting, they handled at least 120 cases of suspected sexual abuse dating from the mid-1970s, according to a Times analysis of confidential Boy Scout files. As district executives, it was their job to gather evidence and witness statements, determine whether to recommend a leader’s expulsion and report their findings to headquarters, which made the final decision. In the process, the officials had a front-row seat on cases in which Scouting’s abuse-prevention policies failed. Although the officials may have followed Scout policy and violated no laws, the files in several cases indicate that they did not inform authorities — or their communities — of suspected child molesters who were expelled from the organization. Faced in recent months with the public release of hundreds of files by court order, Scouting officials have acknowledged that “in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”

“Oregon charter school founders accused in $20 million racketeering lawsuit.” Oregonian. January 4, 2013. [For story, go to Education/Charter Schools].

“Brooks School head failed to report headmaster allegations.” By Peter Schworm. Boston Globe. January 4, 2013. Despite knowing that the headmaster of Brooks School had ¬engaged in an improper relationship with a student, publishing executive Steve Forbes, president of the college preparatory school’s board of trustees at the time, did not report the incident to authorities, the school said Friday. Forbes, an alumnus who served as board president from 1987 to 1997, took steps to address the matter but did not discipline the headmaster, Lawrence W. Becker, or report the ¬alleged relationship to the full board, according to a school spokeswoman, Karen Schwartzman. Becker went on to work for at least another decade before retiring in 2008. On Thursday, the North ¬Andover school disclosed the reported relationship, describing Becker’s conduct as “objectionable, manipulative, and an abuse of his position.” In an e-mail to the school community, school leaders said the relationship raised “grave concerns,” and urged anyone with knowledge that called Becker’s conduct into question to come forward. School officials recently learned of the alleged relationship, which occurred at some point during Forbes’s time on the board, after reviewing Becker’s work record and deter¬mining that he had hired male escorts on two occasions. In a statement on Friday, Forbes said he referred the matter to the school’s legal counsel at the time and that “appropriate action was taken” after an investigation. “Every step was undertaken with the advice and direction of the school’s outside counsel,” he said. The matter did not involve sexual abuse, he said in the statement. The school declined to discuss the nature of the relationship to protect the student’s privacy. Brooks would also not say if Forbes was legally ¬required to report the relationship.
Related story:
“Prep School Reveals Misconduct by Ex-Chief.” New York Times. January 4, 2013.

“Father, son arraigned in Little League theft case.” By Jarret Bencks. Boston Globe. January 5, 2013. The amount of money unaccounted for at the West Medford Hillside Little League could reach as high as $180,000, according to police records made available Friday that indicate the financial trouble at the league is greater than previously disclosed. The records also allege that the -father and son accused of embezzling money from the league allegedly spent some of the funds to buy cigarettes, magazines, and a bed. Stanley Komins, 78, and Steven Komins, 45, both of Stoneham, were arraigned on embezzlement charges Friday morning in Somerville District Court. Judge Neil Walker ordered them to surrender their passports and not leave the state. The judge entered pleas of not guilty for them. Authorities have previously said that the Kominses embezzled upwards of $50,000, but a police report ¬obtained by the Globe identified $180,000 in discrepancies between bank statements and financial -reports to the state between 2006 and 2011. “The financial records for the West Medford Hillside Little League were in shambles,” Medford ¬police Lieutenant Michael Goulding wrote in a ¬police report obtained by the Globe. “Their [the Kominses] efforts of blocking access to the WMHLL accounts and financials and failing to keep and provide accurate records is troubling.”

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“Scouts employ aggressive tactics in abuse defense; Organization often played legal hardball against accusers in molestation cases, say attorneys and families.” By Kim Christensen. Los Angeles Times. December 24, 2012. “hundreds of times” by a troop leader, the Boy Scouts denied responsibility and pointed the finger at someone else — the boys’ recently widowed mother. The Scouts faulted the woman “for her failure to provide adequate parental supervision,” suggesting in court papers that she was responsible for any harm to her sons. One of the boys’ lawyers called that argument excessive. “The day their dad died, the perpetrator began to befriend the boys,” Kelly Clark said. “Then the Boy Scouts turn around and file papers saying Mom was the problem?” The Scouts’ legal tactics in the ongoing lawsuit are part of an aggressive approach that the youth group has long used in defending itself in child sex abuse cases, some victims, their families and lawyers say. Since 1,247 confidential files were unsealed in October detailing allegations of sexual abuse in its ranks, Scouting has taken a more conciliatory stance. “We have heard from victims of abuse and are doing our very best to respond to each person with our utmost care and sensitivity,” Scouting spokesman Deron Smith said in October, offering an apology, counseling and other assistance. But in the years before the files’ release, some who alleged abuse say, their accusations were met with denial, blame and legal hardball.
Related stories:
“Secret Boy Scout sex abuse claims posted online.” San Francisco Chronicle. December 25, 2012.
“Boy Scout files on suspected abuse published by The Times; Viewable online: about 1,200 previously unpublished files kept by the Boy Scouts of America on volunteers and employees expelled for suspected sexual abuse.” Los Angeles Times. December 25, 2012.

“Halfway Houses Prove Lucrative to Those at Top.” By Sam Dolnick. New York Times. December 29, 2012. The Kintock Group, the second-largest operator of halfway houses in New Jersey, is a nonprofit agency that is financed almost entirely by government contracts. But it is run like a well-heeled family business. Kintock paid its founder, David D. Fawkner, roughly $7 million in salary and benefits over the past decade, according to federal disclosure records. Mr. Fawkner’s daughter, brother-in-law and son-in-law altogether received more than $2.5 million during that period, the records show. The nonprofit agency hired the brother-in-law as a consultant even though he has no corrections experience and lives in California. And it employed the son-in-law to run a subsidiary unrelated to its mission: duplicating DVDs and other electronic media. New Jersey has disbursed more than half a billion dollars to nonprofit groups over the past decade to run halfway houses, which handle thousands of state and county inmates annually. But regulators have often failed to scrutinize how that money has been spent, especially by the two nonprofit groups that run most of the facilities in the state, according to an examination by The New York Times.

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“Fallen Dean’s Life, Contradictory to Its Grisly End.” By Willia K. Rashbaum, Wendy Ruderman, and Mosi Secret. New York Times. December 10, 2012. defendant but a woman whose fortunes would surely turn the next day. The evidence and testimony in Federal District Court in Brooklyn had quickly mounted against her, but Cecilia Chang was convinced that once she took the stand at her corruption trial, things would change. As it turned out, Dr. Chang’s turn on the witness stand last month was disastrous. She was utterly unpersuasive. The jurors laughed. She won little sympathy. Dr. Chang, a dean at St. John’s University in Queens, associated with a whirlwind of characters: Catholic priests, Chinese gangsters, American lawmakers, a Taiwanese general and a fantastically corrupt city politician, to name a few. She had been married three times. One husband, she had told several people, was involved in organized crime; another told the police before succumbing to gunshot wounds that she was behind the attack. It was an unlikely lifestyle for anyone, let alone a dean at St. John’s, where she helped attract millions of dollars in contributions to the university from her native Taiwan. But that life, prosecutors charged in state and federal indictments, was enabled by fraud and embezzlement. Federal prosecutors accused her of forcing foreign students to perform household labor in exchange for tuition grants, stealing over $1 million from the university and taking $250,000 from a Saudi prince to organize academic conferences that never happened. Less than 24 hours after testifying, Dr. Chang killed herself — an act of grisly determination. She started a fire in a bedroom fireplace and closed the flue. When death did not come quickly enough, she went downstairs to the kitchen and turned on the gas. For extra measure, she slit her wrists. Stereo speaker wire was her final weapon of choice. She took a length of it back upstairs, lowered an attic ladder and hanged herself from it.

“Abuse Verdict Topples a Hasidic Wall of Secrecy.” By Sharon Otterman. New York Times. December 10, 2012. Sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has long been hidden. Victims who came forward were intimidated into silence; their families were shunned; cases were dropped for a lack of cooperation. But on Monday, a State Supreme Court jury in Brooklyn delivered a stunning victory to prosecutors and victims’ advocates, convicting a 54-year-old unlicensed therapist who is a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg of repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl who had been sent to him for help. The case against the therapist, Nechemya Weberman, was a significant milestone for Mr. Hynes, whose office has been criticized for not acting aggressively enough against sexual abusers in the borough’s large and politically connected ultra-Orthodox community. The verdict represented the first time Mr. Hynes’ office has won a conviction of a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg for child sexual abuse. The case also offered a glimpse of the Satmar community’s shadowy efforts to enforce rigid codes of behavior — particularly for young girls — by allowing so-called modesty committees to intimidate girls for wearing revealing clothing or using cellphones, and requiring parents to send children judged to be breaking rules to religious counselors, many of whom are not licensed and charge high fees.

“A Halfway House Built on Exaggerated Claims.” By Sam Dolnick. New York Times. December 12, 2012. government awarded a $29 million contract to a nonprofit group with a promising name, Community First Services, and impressive credentials. On its Web site and in its bids for contracts, Community First promoted its extensive experience doing work for government agencies, including New York City’s Department of Juvenile Justice and the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Community First hailed the vision of its founder, Jack A. Brown III, whom it portrayed as a veteran of gulf war combat with deep expertise in air-defense artillery. And the group declared that, as its name suggested, it had consulted closely with leading community organizations about setting up the federal halfway house in Brooklyn. But none of these claims are true, an investigation by The New York Times showed. The Brooklyn facility is supposed to be a pillar in an expanding system of federal halfway houses, which are intended to help inmates after they are released from federal prison by arranging for counseling, drug treatment and jobs. But the contract has instead illustrated how the federal government, like New Jersey and some other states, has faced considerable difficulties regulating these places, even as it entrusts more and more inmates to them.

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“‘Three Cups of Tea’ co-author David Oliver Relin dies.” Washington Post/Associated Press. December 3, 2012. David Oliver Relin, the co-author of the best selling novel “Three Cups of Tea,” died in Oregon, authorities said. He was 49. Relin committed suicide in the Portland-area town of Corbett on Nov. 14, deputy Multnomah County medical examiner Peter Bellant said late Sunday night. He said Relin died of blunt force head injury, but declined to provide any other details. Relin was co-author with Greg Mortenson of the novel “Three Cups of Tea,” which recounts how Mortenson started building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The book came under scrutiny last year when “60 Minutes” and Jon Krakauer alleged that it contained numerous fabrications. In April, U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon rejected a lawsuit by four people who bought the book, dismissing claims that the two authors, the publisher, and a charity conspired to make Mortenson into a false hero to sell books and raise money for the charity. Haddon called the claims overly broad, flimsy and speculative. Mortenson had denied any wrongdoing, though he has acknowledged some of the events in “Three Cups of Tea” were compressed over different periods of time. The New York Times reported that Relin did not speak publicly about the charges. “Three Cups of Tea,” which has sold about 4 million copies since being published in 2006, was conceived as a way to raise money and tell the story of Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute, which he co-founded in 1996 to build schools in Central Asia.
Related story:
“David Oliver Relin, Adventurous Journalist, Dies at 49.” New York Times. December 2, 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/us/twists-in-bethany-deaton-murder-case-put-spotlight-on-charismatic-sect.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

“Disputed Murder Confession Casts a Spotlight on a Missouri Sect.” By Erica Goode. New York Times. December 6, 2012. They found her, one leg curled under the other, in the back seat of a van at Longview Lake, a white plastic bag over her head, a purple pillow beside her, an empty pill bottle nearby.
Everyone assumed it was a suicide — the note found in the van seemed to indicate as much: “I did it because I wouldn’t be a real person and what is the point of living if it is too late for that?” it said, and, “Maybe Jesus will still forgive me.” But in the weeks since the body of Bethany Deaton, a registered nurse who had ties to a charismatic Christian sect here that practices round-the-clock worship, was found, the circumstances of her death have become far less clear. Three days after Ms. Deaton’s funeral, a 23-year-old man, Micah Moore, walked into the Grandview, Mo., Police Department and confessed to suffocating her. “I killed her,” he told officers, according to court documents, adding that he had placed the bag over her head and “held it there until her body shook.” Now, the authorities are investigating allegations that Ms. Deaton, 27, was drugged, sexually assaulted and killed on the orders of her husband, Tyler Deaton, 26, a man described by witnesses as a Pied Piper-like leader who gathered a band of young people around him and pressured them to engage in sexual practices under the guise of religious devotion. Mr. Moore has been charged with first-degree murder. Mr. Deaton and others are still under investigation.