The New York Sun
May 20, 2005
Female Fans Of Fields Flying High

With chants of "Madam Mayor" and cries of "yes" and "Virginia," about 60 female elected officials and business leaders standing on the steps of City Hall yesterday threw their support behind C.Virginia Fields, the only woman running for mayor in a major party.

The Fields backers included an assemblywoman, Annette Robinson; a state senator, Ruth Hassell-Thompson; a Democratic district leader and Dominican activist, Maria Luna; a former president of the NAACP in New York, Hazel Dukes, and a founding member of the Women Builders Council, Sandra Wilkin.

"Women in construction in this city, as in the nation, represent a major economic force.Women own nearly 18% of all construction firms," Ms.Wilkin said. "She knows the importance of giving women a strong and significant role in New York City's economy."

Ms. Hassell-Thompson called the group of women,Women for Fields,"extraordinary," "diverse," and "committed," and said that women, representing 58% of the electorate, should vote for Ms. Fields.

The candidate told her sign-waving fans that she would improve the environment for businesses in New York City.

"Women-owned businesses,minority-owned businesses, are significant areas where we can expand jobs by just opening up the doors of opportunity," she said. "Our plans are right in line with priorities that you have articulated."

Hazel Dukes pleads guilty to robbing employee.
Dukes, president of New York State Conference of NAACP chapters guilty of robbing Velma McLaughlin, employee of New York City Off-track Betting
Jet
Nov 10, 1997

Hazel Dukes, president of the New York State Conference of NAACP chapters and former president of New York City Off-track Betting Corporation (OTB), pleaded guilty to stealing $13,000 from an OTB employee and longtime friend.

In 1993 Velma McLaughlin gave Dukes authority to cash her OTB paychecks and to pay her bills after she became ill from cancer.

In pleading guilty to attempted grand larceny in Manhattan Criminal Court, Dukes admitted she used McLaughlin's money for floral arrangements, dry cleaning, car service, telephone bills and to pay for gifts for her friends and relatives. The New York Daily News also reported that Dukes admitted making donations to political campaigns, her sorority and the church.

Dukes, 65, will not be jailed because of her plea bargain to pay back the money by November.

After entering her guilty plea, Dukes maintained her innocence. "I did not make a mistake...My lawyer and I wanted to have some closure on this," she said.

Now living alone in a senior citizens complex in Kansas, McLaughlin, who is still ill, said she will use the money to repay debts she incurred due to Dukes.

An NAACP spokesman declined to tell the Daily News if Dukes would be removed from her position.

NAACP asks Lyons to leave its board
by David Barstow and Moica Davey
St. Petersburg Times
November 11, 1997

NAACP leaders on Monday called for the Rev. Henry J. Lyons and three others accused of financial misdeeds to resign from the organization's national board.

NAACP chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams, who made the announcement after a vote of the group's executive committee, said she feared board members' improprieties could harm the reputation of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights group.

"We want them to resign because the reputation of the NAACP is at stake," Evers-Williams said. "This was a serious matter, and it has to be handled swiftly. Far too many people have suffered for the organization to allow it to be tainted by scandal."

It was the first move by a national organization to disassociate itself from Lyons, plagued for months by allegations of personal and financial misconduct.

Late Monday, Lyons' attorney said Lyons already has stepped down from the 64-member board which sets policy for the NAACP. The attorney cited reasons other than Evers-Williams' request.

Attorney Grady Irvin blamed Lyons' "heavy travel schedule" and his need "to devote more time as pastor of Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church" in St. Petersburg. He also cited Lyons' duties as president of the National Baptist Convention USA Inc.

Irvin said Lyons submitted his written resignation to NAACP president Kweisi Mfume and Evers-Williams last week.

"Although Dr. Lyons has resigned from the board, he will continue to support the worthwhile endeavors of this historic civil rights institution," Irvin wrote in a news release.

Lyons had not received "any written notification, or the like, from the NAACP" calling for him or the others to step down, the release said. In an interview, Irvin would not elaborate on whether Lyons' resignation was prompted by the executive committee's action. Irvin also would not release Lyons' letter of resignation or say on what day last week he had quit.

The decision to oust Lyons and the other board members was made during a conference call Friday night by the NAACP's executive committee, USA Today reported Monday. The executive committee voted 12-2 to seek the resignations or initiate removal proceedings if any refused to step down, the paper reported.

"It's the overwhelming appearance of impropriety that has the majority of the board members concerned," Leon Russell, president of the Florida NAACP branch, said of Lyons' ouster. Russell said he supported the executive committee's decision.

Lyons had been serving his first three-year term on the NAACP's national board, Russell said. His term was to expire in February 1999. Lyons was elected to the unpaid position by the rest of the board. He filled a seat traditionally held by the leader of the National Baptist Convention.

But Russell said Lyons' involvement in the NAACP had been minimal. "He has not attended one board meeting since he was elected," Russell said, adding that the board meets four times a year. "It's not common at all (for board members to skip so many meetings)."

Lyons is facing criminal investigations over his handling of National Baptist Convention finances. Among the revelations: secret bank accounts, lavish purchases and forged documents.

The NAACP has been trying to repair its reputation since 1994, when the board fired executive director Benjamin Chavis after learning he diverted $80,000 from NAACP accounts to settle a sexual harassment complaint.

Monday's announcement came after weeks of internal debate following a new series of embarrassing disclosures. Some board members had threatened to resign if Evers-Williams didn't act.

In addition to Lyons, those asked to resign were:

Hazel Dukes, a close aide to Evers-Williams and president of New York City's Off-Track Betting Corp., who pleaded guilty last month to attempted grand larceny. She admitted that she took $13,201 from a leukemia-stricken OTB employee who had trusted Dukes to help pay her bills. The NAACP also will investigate the finances of the New York state NAACP chapter, which Dukes heads, Evers-Williams said.

James E. Ghee, a Virginia lawyer and another Evers-Williams supporter, who pleaded guilty in May 1996 to embezzling more than $38,000 from a client's trust fund. He was disbarred for five years and given six months in jail. Ghee and Dukes were leaders of a reform movement that pledged to clean up the NAACP. They accused former chairman Bill Gibson of financial wrongdoing and signed a code of ethics pledging NAACP board members to "a personal commitment to integrity in all circumstances."

Bobby Bivens, a Stockton, Calif., resident who was arrested Oct. 6 on charges that he owed $20,000 in child support.

On Monday, Evers-Williams said she had hoped to contact the four board members before announcing the action reached by the group's executive committee on Friday.

A member of the committee leaked details of the vote to the news media, however, so Evers-Williams said she felt compelled to confirm that their resignations would be sought.

"I haven't even been able to tell them we want their resignations," Evers-Williams said. "I'm livid that members of our committee couldn't keep this matter private until the proper time as they had promised."

The committee also voted to strengthen the NAACP's code of ethics, Evers-Williams said.

Green's guilty plea clouds job
Albany Times Union
February 9, 2004

Assemblyman Roger Green may have dodged certain dismissal by cutting a deal with Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne and pleading guilty to misdemeanors last week, but his job isn't necessarily secure.

Under Public Officers Law, elected or appointed officials who are convicted of, or plead guilty to a felony automatically lose their jobs. So it seemed Green, D-Brooklyn, was in the clear last week when he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor-level crimes in admitting he stole money from the Legislature by submitting false travel expenses.

But the law also says officials can be bumped from their posts when they are convicted of a crime involving a violation of the oath of office.

In 1997, Hazel Dukes, a veteran civil rights activist and former national NAACP president from New York City, resigned as a SUNY trustee following a ruling by then-state Attorney General Dennis Vacco that she had abdicated her post by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor that violated her oath.

Dukes pleaded guilty to fourth-degree attempted grand larceny for stealing $13,200 from an ailing employee when she was head of New York City's Off-Track Betting Corp.

Vacco, who was asked by SUNY officials to determine whether Dukes' plea resulted in an automatic vacancy of her post, wrote that she had shown a "calculated disregard for honest dealing" and therefore violated her oath.

The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled in 1993 that an official could be put out of office for misdemeanors that "arise from knowing or intentional conduct indicative of a lack of moral integrity."

"When an officer's moral integrity is called into question, so is the oath, and the public's trust in its government is necessarily undermined," the court stated.

To demonstrate a lack of moral integrity, the court added, a crime must involve "willful deceit or a calculated disregard for honest dealings." This must be determined on a case-by-case basis, the court found.

Darren Dopp, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, declined to comment on whether the standard affects Green. The attorney general would not issue an opinion on the matter unless formally asked to do so.

Following Green's plea last week, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said he would create a panel to evaluate "all issues raised by this case." Asked Sunday whether the panel would consider whether Green should forfeit his job, Silver spokesman Charles Carrier said: "I just have to go with the language of the speaker's statement."

The Assembly Republican minority has yet to weigh in on Green, who last week said the practice of seeking reimbursement for fake travel expenses is widespread and needs to be changed.

But Assemblyman Robert Prentiss, R-Colonie, said Green "violated the public trust," adding that if he were in Green's shoes, he would resign. Prentiss also said Green's actions has "blemished the institution" of the Legislature.

"No one likes to see an elected official break the law," Prentiss said. "Even casting an appearance of the impropriety blemishes our reputation."