Walter Lee’s more than two decades of service on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will end at 4:30 p.m. today. Gannett Louisiana reports that’s the deadline for Lee to resign from the board under a plea agreement accepted Thursday by a DeSoto district judge; the agreement would end a year-long criminal investigation into questionable financial activities related to the last three years Lee spent as DeSoto Parish schools superintendent while dually serving on BESE.
Lee, standing beside his attorney Taylor Townsend, raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth before saying “guilty” when Judge Charles B. Adams asked him how he wanted to plead to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a movable. He was accused of personally benefiting from the return of a leased vehicle.
The courtroom was void of spectators other than three media representatives and a longtime friend of Lee. The reduced charge is the result of an agreement reached Wednesday between Lee, Townsend and lame duck DeSoto District Attorney Richard Johnson. Adams gave the parties until Thursday to put it in writing to be a part of the formal sentencing.
In addition to ending his BESE service, Lee was sentenced to a six-month suspended parish jail term, placed on unsupervised probation for six months, ordered to pay the DeSoto Parish School Board $10,653 and the court system a $500 fine plus costs.
In exchange, Johnson agreed to dismiss the other charges pending against Lee. Within two hours of the sentencing, the DeSoto DA’s office delivered a personal check to the school board for what the court said he owed.
Despite Lee’s admission of guilt, Townsend said his client did not violate any criminal laws. The plea was in Lee’s “best interest” and will allow him to “put this behind him and move on,” he said. Read the full story.
