Monday, Aug. 18, 2008

Five Rivers leaders reject plea deal

Charged with a combined 15 felony counts

Beulah White and Dayo White, former executives with Five Rivers Community Development Corp., rejected a plea deal Monday and will stand trial later this year on 15 felony charges of embezzlement and criminal conspiracy.

Defense lawyers did not say why the women rejected the plea deal, which would have reduced the charges and limited possible prison terms to five years for Beulah White and 10 years for Dayo White.

Greg Hembree, solicitor for the state's 15th judicial circuit, said he now plans to proceed with trials on all of the charges.

``If we are going to war, we're going to war with all of it,'' Hembree said.

Beulah White, former executive director of the Five Rivers nonprofit agency, faces six felony charges that carry a maximum prison term of 35 years.

Her daughter, Dayo White, faces nine felony charges that carry a maximum prison term of 60 years. Dayo White was chief financial officer of Five Rivers, which was supposed to help low-income residents find job and buy homes.

Court officials said trials for the two women could begin in two or three months.

Hembree first offered the plea deal on June 2, giving the Whites a one-week deadline to accept or reject the offer.

That deadline was extended to Monday after Charlie Condon, the former S.C. attorney general, was hired to help represent the Whites.

Prosecutors have charged the Whites with embezzlement and criminal conspiracy, saying they used about $100,000 of public money that was supposed to be spent on the nonprofit's programs for low-income residents.

That is a small portion of the nearly $5 million Five Rivers received in state and federal grants and other contributions during its 10-year history. Most of that money was spent on salaries, travel and other benefits for Beulah White and her children.

Hembree has said he is not able to prosecute the Whites for much of their spending because the nonprofit agency’s board of directors approved their salaries and expenses.

Beulah White's charges include allegations that she used the nonprofit's credit card to buy more than $5,000 of personal merchandise from Home Depot, gave $8,000 of the nonprofit's money to friends as loans that were never repaid and used public money to publish a personal magazine titled ``True Witness.''Dayo White's charges include allegations that she took $42,900 from the nonprofit's bank account for personal expenses, used the nonprofit's credit cards to make at least $12,000 worth of personal purchases and used public money to buy a personal computer.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says the Whites misspent $418,180 from a federal grant they received. The Whites have not responded to HUD’s demand that they repay that money.

The women were arrested on Aug. 22 and released later that day after posting a combined $150,000 bond.