Phila. embezzler gets a choice: Get a job or go to jail
Sure, the job market's tight, but Common Pleas Court Judge Joan A. Brown has given Greg Wade some extra incentive: Go to work, or go to jail.
Sure, the job market's tight, but Common Pleas Court Judge Joan A. Brown has given Greg Wade some extra incentive: Go to work, or go to jail.
Wade, 55, the disgraced ex-president of the Philadelphia Home and School Council, pleaded guilty in 2009 to embezzling almost $138,000 in scholarship money from the citywide PTA group.
On Monday, he was back in court with explaining to do.
In the 16 months since he was put on probation and ordered to reimburse the council $118,367, Wade has paid back a grand total of $155, according to Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Liermann.
"I've been applying for jobs," Wade told Brown. "I applied for many jobs: a retirement home changing diapers, I worked a whole week at a funeral home picking up bodies."
In each case, however, the opportunity evaporated when the employer learned Wade was a convicted embezzler.
Wade told Brown he used to be employed in the garment industry, but has not worked full time for several years. He said that his wife was recovering from breast cancer surgery and that two of his four children live at home.
The Northeast Philadelphia man was elected president of the parents group in 2006 and reelected to the volunteer post two years later. He was arrested in November 2008, and in May 2009, he admitted forging 145 checks for personal expenses, including the purchase of a 2009 Dodge Journey SUV.
In a sentence that infuriated the prosecutor - who sought two to four years in prison - and council officials, then-Common Pleas Court Judge Joyce O. Eubanks sentenced Wade to 111/2 to 23 months of house arrest and 54 months of probation, conditioned on his reimbursing the council for most of the missing money.
On Monday, Delores Solomon, the current council president, told Brown she was "very disappointed that restitution has not been made." The stolen funds, she said, would have provided $500 scholarships to 30 public school students.
"We think Mr. Wade needs to serve some time and then, when he comes out, pays us what he needs to," council treasurer Abby Williams added.
Defense attorney Michael J. Lovell asked for more time: "He's making an effort to work, and obviously he continues to need to do that."
Brown agreed, saying Wade would be directed to job sources open to hiring convicted felons. Once employed, she said, he must pay a significant part of each check to the council.
The judge told Wade to return to court March 10, but warned him he had better have a "legal, legitimate job" by then. "If you're not working," she said, "then I'm going to put you in prison for a significant time."