LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Riverside County woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge that she embezzled more than $10,000 from a labor union where she worked as treasurer.
Rachel Gleason entered her guilty plea in Los Angeles to a single federal count of embezzlement and theft of labor union assets, a charge carrying a maximum of five years behind bars, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Sentencing was set for Oct. 4.
Gleason agreed to pay $10,698 in restitution to the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Local 1700, located in Perris, according to her plea agreement.
The woman stole the funds between August 2013 and September 2015 for her own use, the document states.
Gleason served as treasurer of the Riverside County office of the union from March 2013 through October 2015. Local 1700 represents about 160 dues-paying members employed as bus drivers, dispatchers, mechanics and clerks for companies that received products that moved interstate.
As treasurer, the defendant signed checks and managed the local's financial responsibilities, using her position to write checks to herself while falsely representing that the checks were for legitimate union payouts, such as mileage reimbursement, salary and other expenses, according to the plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court.
When contacted in 2018 by investigators from the Office of Labor Management Standards to discuss the embezzlement and conversion of union funds, Gleason, "in a willful attempt to obstruct and impede the investigation," presented OLMS investigators with falsified time-off requests, purporting to substantiate her claims for lost time payments, the document states.