Spend time in prison or admit you stole more than $20,000 from a college (you’ve already been convicted of the crime, and the evidence was pretty overwhelming): What would you do? Former Dallas city councilman James Fantroy decided to "do the time" instead of admit the crime, according to the DMN, saying: "I’ve said from day one, ‘not guilty,’" later comparing his stand to Dr. Martin Luther King’s tribulations and saying he didn’t want to sacrifice the integrity he established during his public service career.
Fantroy, a four-term councilman, was convicted in February of stealing from Paul Quinn College. Prosecutors convicted him of pocketing more than $20,000 by writing checks from a college development fund to himself and relatives/friends for work they didn’t do. When caught, he attempted to return the money, but didn’t repay it all even though he had just sold an apartment complex for $300,000.
Last week, Fantroy told U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade prior to sentencing and while asking for leniency that "I probably have three months left. Kidney cancer, in my condition, there’s nothing they can do about it." Whether that plea had anything to do with the judge’s offer of prison or apology, who knows? But Fantroy will also serve 180 days of home confinement and has been ordered to repay $17,000 in restitution. Good thing his council term ended well before the jockeying on the convention center hotel begins…
