Ex-union leader in court on theft charges
Wearing street clothes and leg shackles, a former president of the Lawrence teachers union appeared in court Friday on charges he embezzled thousands of dollars in union dues.
During a 10-minute first appearance in District Court, Wayne Kruse’s attorney waived a formal reading of the charges, and Kruse received a bond reduction from the judge.
Kruse’s bond had been set at $25,000, but his attorney, Mark Bennett, asked Judge Stephen Six to lower it based on Kruse’s education, ties to the community and absence of criminal history.
“It’s not a violent crime,” Bennett said.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Claus said prosecutors opposed any reduction. But Six reduced the bond to $10,000 and said he didn’t consider Kruse a flight risk, and Six let him out of jail on his own recognizance.
That means if Kruse failed to appear in court and forfeited his bond he’d have to pay $10,000, but he didn’t have to pay any bond money Friday.
Earlier in the day, Kruse had turned himself in at the Douglas County Jail and was taken by deputies to the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., for the hearing. After the hearing, deputies took him back to jail, where he was released.
Kruse, president of the Lawrence Education Assn. from fall 1999 to summer 2004, is charged with one count of theft greater than $25,000 and two counts of forgery. The union has reported more than $97,000 missing from roughly $240,000 in dues deducted from teachers’ paychecks between November 2003 and August 2004.
Wayne Kruse, right, a former president of the Lawrence teachers union, appears in court Friday with attorney Mark Bennett on charges that he embezzled thousands of dollars in union dues.
Kruse is suspended with pay from his job as a sixth-grade teacher at Quail Run School. School board members are expected to discuss revoking Kruse’s pay during their meeting Monday.
The case is being prosecuted by the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office because Kruse was listed as a campaign supporter of Douglas County Dist. Atty. Charles Branson. But the Johnson County prosecutor wasn’t available to handle Friday’s hearing, Claus said.
Kruse’s next court date is March 28 to schedule a preliminary hearing.
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