Gwen Hemphill

In my thirty years of covering DC, I can’t think of a more tragic ending to a public servant’s career! Gwen Hemphill stood before US District Court judge Richard Leon on Monday, May 22^nd and said “to my God, family and friends, I am deeply sorry and ashamed...I wanted (Washington Teachers Union President) Ms. Bullock’s approval…who I thought of as a mother figure...I put aside my faith, my values."

In those two sentences, I suppose the former WTU office manager and Co-Chair of Mayor Tony Williams re-election campaign was trying to explain how a career - a life - could turn so wrong!

I may be wrong; but it seems to me Judge Richard Leon felt that putting this 64 year old grandmother with questionable fragile mental and physical conditions away for the next eleven years is kind of like killing an ant with a stick of dynamite! Before passing sentence Judge Leon said to Hemphill, “I will never understand...The legacy you might have left your grandchildren has been destroyed”.

However, Leon refused prosecutors call for a 19 year sentence. He said, “If I could sentence you to community service for hundreds of hours, and be a model, I would."

Federal guidelines that originated in a Congress hell bent on appearing tough white collar criminals didn’t give the judge more discretion. In sentencing Hemphill to 132 months, Leon told her “you will bear the burden of your conduct for the rest of your life." He said her actions had cost DC teachers more than four million dollars.

Hemphill will remain free for another two months. On July 22, she’ll report to a federal prison; probably in Alderson West Virginia where the Washington Teachers Union President is serving time. Bullock, the 65 year old mastermind of the four million dollar embezzlement scheme, got two years less than Hemphill because of a plea bargain and her agreeing to testify against both Hemphill and WTU secretary Treasurer James Baxter will be sentenced on June 5.