SOUTH-CENTRAL : 2 Plead Not Guilty in Alleged School Program Fraud

The operators of a South-Central independent study program pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court on Monday to criminal charges of bilking the Los Angeles Unified School District out of $730,000 for students who never enrolled.

Trial was set for Jan. 24 for Arnese Clemons, former director of the Institute for Successful Living, and Dewey Hughes, a consultant who helped her hire teachers. Bail was set at $50,000 each. The two were represented by court-appointed attorneys because they could not afford private representation. In court papers, Clemons said she now works for World Book Encyclopedia and is raising two foster children. Hughes did not list an employer and said he has debts of more than $30,000.

Clemons and Hughes were indicted on Dec. 1 for allegedly overstating the number of students they were serving in the program between 1988 and 1991. In a complicated ruse, the U.S. attorney’s office claims, teachers were asked to forge absent students’ names onto work-completion forms.

In addition, the institute allegedly proved it had sufficient teachers to instruct those students by interviewing teacher candidates, not hiring them and then sending copies of their credentials to the district as if they had been hired.

Attorneys for Clemons and Hughes would not comment on the case Monday.