Cunningham pleads guilty to federal charges
By AMY LORENTZEN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDES MOINES - With a plea deal now in place for its alleged architect, the two-year long CIETC scandal can now come to a close - and take its place in Iowa history.
''The ... case will go down in history as one of the most significant public corruption or public fraud cases in Iowa,'' U.S. Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker said during a news conference. ''This case demonstrates how not to operate an organization that receives federal funds.''
Whitaker's assessment came Monday, shortly after the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium's former CEO, Ramona Cunningham, admitted she had diverted federal funds to her own pocketbook and to a handful of her colleagues at the federally funded job training agency.
Cunningham pleaded guilty to eight of the 30 federal charges she had initially faced. Prosecutors say they'll argue for her to spend 7 to 10 years behind bars.
Whitaker called the plea agreement a ''victory for the taxpaying public,'' who have already paid an estimated $200,000 to investigate and prosecute Cunningham and her colleagues.
Cunningham and her cohorts were accused of conspiring to misspend more than $1.5 million on huge executive bonuses and salaries from January 2003 to April 2006. Cunningham was fingered as the ringleader of the operation and faced the greatest number of charges.
Since the story broke in a state auditors report more than two years ago, CIETC has garnered widespread media attention. Tawdry details - including testimony that linked Cunningham romantically to CIETC board members - have helped to make the case a mainstay in local media.
A new twist came earlier this year, when Cunningham's attorney requested a mental competency hearing to argue that his client wasn't fit to stand trial. During the testimony, her psychiatrist detailed a suicide attempt.
All the notoriety the case has brought her will weigh heavily on Cunningham in the future, her lawyer, Bill Kutmus, said on Monday. He said she would no longer be able to live in Iowa because in this state her name, Ramona, has become known in the singular - like Madonna or Cher.
''That celebrity status is infamous,'' he said. ''Once everything is settled, she'll never return to Iowa ... she can't live in this state.''
At her co-defendants' trial in April, jurors convicted Karen Tesdell, a former CIETC treasurer, of all 29 counts against her. Dan Albritton, a former board member and Cunningham's boyfriend, was acquitted of a count of conspiracy, and former Iowa Workforce Development supervisor Jane Barto was found guilty of one count of obstruction but acquitted of a conspiracy charge.
Former CIETC Chairman Archie Brooks and former CIETC Chief Operating Officer John Bargman already have pleaded guilty to various charges in the case.
Whitaker said the eight counts Cunningham pleaded guilty to under the agreement represent each of the federal funds that were defrauded or otherwise misapplied.
The only advantage Cunningham has under the agreement, he said, is by accepting responsibility for her actions. That means she may have 18 to 24 months shaved from a sentence that a trial judge could have delivered.
Kutmus said the sentence ''is the fighting issue'' in Cunningham's case, and he vowed to argue for a lesser one than what the government will suggest. He said he wouldn't give particulars until the sentencing hearing.
''Well, you've witnessed a shipwreck, that's obvious,'' he said. ''I think Ramona, she admitted she was at the wheel when this shipwreck occurred, she has accepted responsibility for her past deeds.''
