Defending the Worst Employees

The MEA can spend the dues dollars of their hard-working members any way they want.  But do those hard-working teachers know where their dollars are going?  And do those teachers know who their union is defending?

In 2007, Grand Rapids music teacher Ronald Richard Taylor was convicted of 15 counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for molesting several boys. 

Defense attorney Fil Iorio said the boys were lying and were simply repeating things they heard. 

Fil Iorio is of Kalniz Iorio & Feldstein and in the LM-2 (page 77 of 148), the MEA reported paying their firm $281,913 for legal work.  Did dues dollars go to defend a child molester?

Iorio pops up again in a Grand Rapids Press story to defend an employee on "'last chance' probation" stemming from "testing positive for alcohol use while teaching."  The teacher is now accused of engaging in "concerning" conduct including sending text messages to a sophomore telling her when he would be in his office. "Hope 2 cu," he wrote her.  He told other students about "turmoil in his marriage," according to the story.

"He's done nothing wrong or criminal," Iorio said.  Apparently something has to be illegal for it to be unprofessional, by the attorney's standard. 

Iorio is also representing a West Ottawa teacher accused of fixing tests so students are ensured of passing them.  In that case, the district is seeking to fire the teacher but it is being appealed to the Michigan Tenure Commission. 

Krista Durchik, also of Kalniz Iorio & Feldstein, is representing Comstock Park custodian Ricky Wright, who is charged with two counts of larceny.  He stole kids' baseball gloves and teachers' calculators and, according to investigators, listed them on eBay.

While Durchik was quoted in a May 29, 2008 Grand Rapids Press story saying a "not guilty" plea had been entered on behalf of her client, the same article notes he "confessed to stealing numerous" items to detectives.

So in this situation, the victims are not only paying for new items, they're also paying to defend the thief!

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