State Sen. E.B. McClain pleads not guilty to charges in 50-count indictment

[flashl]

State senator's trial set tentatively for August

State Sen. E.B. McClain of Midfield pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges in a 50-count federal indictment that alleges he took nearly half of $700,000 in state grants he helped a Birmingham minister obtain for poor seniors and disadvantaged students.

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McClain, a state legislator since 1986, and the Rev. Samuel Pettagrue, the retired pastor of Sardis Baptist Church, each face 31 counts of money laundering, 14 counts of mail fraud and one count each of conspiracy and bribery. The two also are named in two criminal forfeiture counts seeking payment of $426,909 in government money lost through the schemes.

McClain already faces a state theft charge, based on warrants issued by the attorney general's office, for receiving state money from two Pettagrue nonprofit groups - the Community Resource Center and Heritage to Hope Foundation.

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According to the federal indictment issued against him in May, McClain steered $700,000 in state funds to Pettagrue's nonprofit groups, and Pettagrue paid a total of more than $312,000 to him from those funds from May 2001 to July 2006.

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Pettagrue and his son helped manage the grant money obtained by McClain, money that was supposed to serve poor seniors and those who needed tutoring to obtain a GED, a diploma for those who don't complete high school. After Pettagrue paid himself and his son more than $120,000 from the state funds, about a fourth of the original $700,000 was left for the tutoring and senior programs.

Everything Alabama

[bobbolink]

1. How low do you have to be to steal from poor folk????

Locally, there was a director of a "help" agency who embezzled funds.

:grr: