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Quiñones gets 90 days home arrest

Former Sweetwater Union High School District trustee Pearl Quiñones, who served on the school board for more than a decade, was sentenced Monday to 90 days of home confinement and three years on felony probation for her role in the South Bay schools

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Former Sweetwater schools trustee Pearl Quinones, who served on the school board for more than a decade, was sentenced Monday to 90 days of home confinement and three years on felony probation for her role in the South Bay schools corruption case.

It was the strictest sentence handed down so far to a group of nearly a dozen school officials, administrators and contractors ensnared in an investigation of gift-giving by contractors angling for their share of hundreds of millions of dollars of voter-approved school-bond contracts.

Several more defendants, including former Superintendent Jesus Gandara, are yet to be sentenced.

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Quiñones is the first defendant to be ordered to serve some form of confinement. Previous defendants who have been sentenced have been ordered to perform community service and probation, or in some cases simply sentenced to probation and a monetary fine.

She pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy and accepting gifts above limits defined in state law. Judge Ana Espana ordered Quiñones to perform 10 days of public service work and pay a fine of $7,994. She’ll report to county officials in charge of an alternative sentencing program, which includes home confinement, in about three weeks.

Quiñones, 61, was one of 15 people indicted in December 2012 in an investigation District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis called the worst corruption scandal of her tenure. The indictment alleged a wide-ranging web of corruption between contractors and officials in three separate school districts.

As the case proceeded the serious allegations of bribery, perjury and conspiracy have played out as admissions by defendants of less serious crimes — such as not filling out forms properly and not completely reporting all gifts.

Quiñones told Espana that she took responsibility for her mistakes, and said there was no malice or ulterior motive behind them.

“I know what I did,” she said. “I know it was wrong, even though it was not intentional.”

Her attorney, Marc Carlos, said Quiñones did not personally enrich herself and has a life of work of helping people and serving. He said her board tenure coincided with academic improvement, higher graduation rates and lower dropout rates.

About 18 people showed up in support of Quiñones. One, former school employee Kathie O’Brien, told Espana that Quiñones was being unfairly singled out. She pointed out other officials, such as former county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who received gifts and did not report them but were allowed to simply change their disclosure forms without being prosecuted.

Slater Price received free tickets and other benefits from arts organizations, including the San Diego Opera, to which she had awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in county grants.

While supporters saw Quiñones’ multiple terms on the board as a benefit to the district, others did not. Tonda Johnson, a retired teacher, bemoaned the fact that Espana had not sentenced any of the people indicted to a jail term, and called on Quiñones to be the first to stop what she called “the systemic and pervasive corruption in the South Bay.”

“Examples need to be made,” she said.

Deputy District Attorney Leon Schorr argued that Quiñones should be sent to jail for 6 months, and said his office opposed any reduction of the conviction to a misdemeanor. He said by not reporting the gifts — meals, trips and contributions to her campaigns — from contractors, Quiñones deprived district residents of important information outlining the extent of the relationship between board members and businesses.

Espana said her review of grand jury testimony showed Quiñones was one of the more ‘egregious” violators among all the defendants, and should be sentenced accordingly.

Quinones, who had to leave her seat on the board because she pleaded guilty to a felony charge, said outside of court she was disappointed in the sentence.

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