LOS ANGELES : Consultant Pleads Guilty to Defrauding School District

A former employee of an independent study program in South-Central Los Angeles pleaded guilty Monday to felony charges of defrauding Los Angeles Unified School District of more than $700,000.

In a plea bargain, Dewey Hughes--who acted as a consultant to the private Institute for Successful Living--pleaded guilty to three of the 20 counts filed against him and program director Arnese Clemons. Clemons has pleaded not guilty.

According to an indictment filed jointly last month by the U.S. attorney and the state attorney general, Hughes helped Clemons doctor records to make it appear that the institute was enrolling far more students than it actually had--allowing them to receive payment for those students under its contract with the district.

In his plea, Hughes said the cheating began gradually, with small alterations that he felt were warranted “to help students� by keeping the program afloat financially.

“Students would sign up and then they . . . would come in and eat lunch, but they wouldn’t do their work,� he said. “The director would have me prepare their work for them.�

Asked by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon why he didn’t simply tell the school district the truth at the time, Hughes responded, “It wasn’t my role to do that . . . though in retrospect, I should have.�

Hughes could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in jail, but Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Flanagan said the actual sentence would probably be less than five years. Flanagan declined comment on whether Hughes will testify against Clemons, whose trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 14.