August 25, 2007
Ex-University Head in Texas on Trial for Money Misuse
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL, NY TIMES

HOUSTON, Aug. 24 — With Texas Southern University struggling to survive as one of the nation’s largest historically black colleges, the former president once hailed as its savior faced a state jury here Friday, charged with misspending hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal luxuries.

A $1,000 silk canopy for a four-poster bed, $138,000 for landscaping and $61,600 for a security system are among the items that prosecutors say the former president, Priscilla Slade, fraudulently billed the public for and kept secret from trustees from 1999 to 2005.

The charges being considered in Harris County District Court carry penalties from probation up to life in prison.

Describing Ms. Slade, 55, as a “very fearsome leader” who intimidated underlings, Julian Ramirez, an assistant Harris County district attorney, said the evidence would show “Priscilla Slade had her own set of rules — if she wanted it, Priscilla Slade was going to buy it.”

But before the jury of six women and six men that included two black men and one black woman, another portrait was painted by her lawyer, Mike DeGeurin, who said in his opening statement: “She worked 24/7 to save that university.” Mr. DeGeurin characterized the expenditures as proper and denied that Ms. Slade had sought to conceal them.

“The records are there; it’s not like they’re hidden,” he said, blaming subordinates for not reporting the expenditures to the university’s regents.

“She was blindsided when the scandal hit the papers,” he said.

The university’s chief financial officer, Quentin Wiggins, was recently convicted on related charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The revelations are the latest blow to Texas Southern, which has about 10,000 students and 45 buildings on a 150-acre campus in Houston’s largely African-American Third Ward.

Established by the Legislature in 1947 as the Texas State University for Negroes, Texas Southern counts Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, former members of Congress, as alumni and has graduated more than one-quarter of all the black lawyers in Texas.

But the university has made many missteps. In 1997, the federal Department of Education, finding mismanagement of millions of dollars of student aid, required Texas Southern to pay the students first and then file for reimbursement, draining the university’s coffers and leaving some students without money and forced to sleep in their cars. In 1999 the Legislature threatened to absorb Texas Southern into the University of Texas system or place it under another higher education umbrella.

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat whose district includes the campus, showed up in court on Friday, hugged Ms. Slade and spoke to prosecutors, saying later that she had not been taking sides and that she had faith in the judicial system.

But later at a news conference, Ms. Jackson Lee faulted Texas and federal officials for what she called the longstanding neglect of the university.

Ms. Jackson Lee and others called on Gov. Rick Perry to fill the four vacancies on the university’s nine-member Board of Regents so that a new permanent president could be named. J. Timothy Boddie Jr., a retired Air Force brigadier general, has been interim president since November.

The university, about 85 percent of whose students are African-American, guarantees enrollment to all high school graduates. It claims a proud history as “the house that Sweatt built” from its segregation-era origins after a successful discrimination lawsuit by a black mail carrier, Heman Marion Sweatt, who was denied entry to the University of Texas School of Law in 1946.

Although the indictment broadly charges that Ms. Slade “misapplied” more than $200,000 in university money and failed to obtain approval for expenditures of more than $100,000, the prosecution’s opening specified at least $429,579 in illegal spending.

This, Mr. Ramirez said, began shortly after Ms. Slade, then dean of the business school with a doctorate in accounting, was elevated to interim president in 1999 as Texas Southern scrambled to assuage lawmakers over the university’s string of troubles.

Although initially paid a salary of $147,500 with a $50,000 expense account, Ms. Slade, then living in her own house in nearby Missouri City, “embarked on a spending spree that the board was not aware of,” the prosecutor said. Among the expenditures for her house were $48,864 for furniture; $19,021 for landscaping; $21,807 for flooring; $21,878 for roofing; and $14,137 for drapes.

By 2005 when her base salary had grown to $248,334 a year plus $5,200 a month in housing and car allowances and a $50,000-a-year expense account, she built a $1.2 million house in Houston’s exclusive Memorial section where, Mr. Ramirez said, she misspent $286,426 in university money on furniture, landscaping and security, sometimes using Texas Southern’s vendors.

The first prosecution witness was Alphonso R. Jackson, the federal secretary of housing and urban development and a former chairman of the university board who said he and Dr. Slade had “had a very good relationship.” When asked by the defense why he had not asked for receipts, he said that perhaps he should have, “but I trusted her.”

Mr. DeGeurin defended the expenditures as befitting a president who needed to entertain.

“She considered it, visionwise, an extension of T.S.U.,” he said, adding at another point, “Yes, even the bed.” He defended, too, her purchases at Neiman Marcus instead of discount stores like Kohls. “That’s not a crime,” he said.

And later Mr. DeGeurin added, “Dr. Slade is not going to go third grade.”

Maureen Balleza and Audrey La contributed reporting.

Click2Houston.com
Related To Story

Jury Decides Fate Of Former TSU Official
POSTED: 10:57 am CDT May 8, 2007
UPDATED: 5:45 pm CDT May 8, 2007
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HOUSTON -- Jurors reached a decision in the punishment phase of a former Texas Southern University financial officer convicted of helping cover up a tax-funded personal spending spree, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Quintin Wiggins, the university's former vice president of finance, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Wiggins was found guilty on Wednesday of one count of misapplication of fiduciary property with a value over $200,000, a first-degree felony.

Prosecutors asked for a 30-year sentence but said they were happy with the decision.

"We're satisfied with that," prosecutor Julian Ramirez said. "Prison time sends a strong message. We can't argue with what the jury did. They put a lot of time into this case. They heard about 55 to 60 hours of testimony and they did what they thought was right. We respect that."

A judge has not yet ruled on Wiggins' attorney's request for an appeal bond. Anyone sentenced to 10 years or less in prison is not qualified for an appeal bond.

Prosecutors said Wiggins helped hide a nearly $300,000 spending spree by the university's now-former president, Priscilla Slade.

Wiggins approved expenditures for Slade's estate, prosecutors said. Documents showed $138,000 was spent on landscaping, $86,000 for furniture and $61,000 on a security system.

Wiggins violated university and state procurement rules by approving the purchases and by failing to tell TSU's board of regents or other school officials about them.

Wiggins' wife took the stand in the punishment phase of the trial to testify on his behalf. She told the jury that Wiggins is a family man with three children who deserves probation and not prison time.

Wiggins did not testify.

Slade and two other university officials were also indicted on charges related to the purchases. Slade is scheduled to go to trial in August.

Evidence in the punishment phase of the trial included testimony about Wiggins' prior arrests for impersonating an officer and driving while intoxicated.

The campus in Houston has an enrollment of about 11,000 students and is the alma mater of the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan and other notables.

Previous Stories:
May 7, 2007: Former TSU Official Does Not Testify At Trial
May 3, 2007: Verdict Reached In Former TSU Official's Trial
May 2, 2007: Jury Deliberates In Former TSU Official's Trial
March 5, 2007: Former TSU President's Home For Sale Again
August 2, 2006: Former TSU President Posts Bond
August 1, 2006: Former TSU President Indicted
June 7, 2006: Slade No-Show At Her TSU Termination Hearing
May 19, 2006: Search Warrant Executed At TSU President's Home
May 5, 2006: TSU Embattled President's Home Goes On Market
April 18, 2006: TSU's Slade To Appeal Firing
April 17, 2006: Regents Vote To Fire Texas Southern President
April 14, 2006: Slade's Future Could Be Decided In Emergency Meeting
March 29, 2006: TSU Selects Interim President
March 17, 2006: Embattled TSU President To Take Paid Leave
March 15, 2006: Emergency Meeting To Determine Slade's Future
February 4, 2006: TSU Regents Keep President Slade

Copyright 2007 by Click2Houston.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report