Trustee charged in campaign fund theft
Prosecutors have accused board member John Lindner of grand theft by using unspent money on almost $30,000 for travel, personal expenses
SAN JOSE >> In a case described as “textbook corruption,” longtime Franklin-McKinley School District trustee John Lindner has been charged with stealing nearly $30,000 in bond campaign funds that prosecutors say he spent on travel and personal expenses.
Lindner, 55, turned himself in to authorities Thursday on misdemeanor charges of grand theft, perjury and violations of the Political Reform Act. He was freed after posting $35,000 bail.
He previously told this news organization that he did not plan to resign. On Friday, Lindner refused to comment on the charges and instead referred a reporter to his attorneys, Steven Clark and Christopher Schumb of San Jose. They didn’t respond to requests for comment by this newspaper’s Friday deadline.
Franklin-McKinley board member George Sanchez expressed renewed surprise over the latest development. Lindner has long been a public face of the district, which serves more than 10,000 elementary and middle school students in some of San Jose’s poorest neighborhoods.
News of the theft was “something that you don’t expect” said Sanchez, a six-term trustee who has served during all of Lindner’s 13 years on the board. About the charges, Sanchez said, “this is shocking again.”
The criminal charges piggyback on an investigation earlier this year by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission probing Lindner’s management of funds for the “Franklin-McKinley for Our Kids — Yes on Measure J 2010” campaign. In October, he agreed with the commission to pay an $18,500 fine to the state.
The FPPC report found that Lindner, while serving as the campaign’s treasurer, used unspent funds to “make personal purchases of lumber and travel” and “withdrew cash and transferred money to his personal bank account,” prosecutors said.
According to deputy district attorney John Chase, in May 2011 Lindner loaned $10,000 to his husband, Mark Perry, and a smaller sum to Perry’s mother, Velma Perry, for renovating her home. Velma Perry repaid $11,914 to the campaign fund in November 2011.
But, Chase added, “loaning money is embezzlement as well,” if the loan is not for approved purposes.
The five felony and five misdemeanor counts are fairly serious, Chase said. “It’s stealing money that people expected to be used to get public support for a school bond measure.”
Chase called the case “textbook corruption” and pointed out that Lindner was not just an ordinary community volunteer. Chase noted that Lindner was in a place of public trust with decision-making power over how contracts would be awarded. Most of the funds for the bond campaign came from contractors and others hoping to do business with the district.
Voters ultimately approved the $50 million
bond measure in November 2010.
According to prosecutors, Lindner “had bled the account almost dry,” but “continued to file periodic disclosure forms reporting that the fund had $13,000.”
Lindner had declared in a filing that he was terminating the bond campaign committee. He also claimed he distributed remaining funds in amounts less than $100 to “unnamed civic donation recipients,” according to the FPPC.
An alert employee in the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voter’s office notified the FPPC of that unusual claim.
Chase praised the registrar’s staff. “That’s really good that they were on the ball like that,” he said.
The FPPC reported that Lindner told its investigator that he had placed cash in envelopes and anonymously donated to about 140 schools and nonprofit groups, but he could not name any of the groups.
Lindner, who was reelected in 2016 to a fourth term, was censured in November by his board colleagues over the theft. That’s not enough to satisfy some parents.
“Parents are very concerned with charges against John Lindner and have lost trust in him and the board,” said Kerry Rosado, mother of two elementary children in the district.
Lindner retired last spring as an elementary teacher in the neighboring Oak Grove School District.
He is scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Jan. 19. The crimes he’s accused of committing are punishable by jail time and fines in excess of $250,000, according to the District Attorney’s Office.