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Dance pleads guilty to perjury

John Lee

Former Baltimore County School Superintendent Dallas Dance Thursday pleaded guilty to four counts of perjury. Prosecutors are recommending Dance serve time in jail.

 

Dance admits he did not disclose nearly $147,000 he earned from consulting jobs while he was running the county schools. Those payments include money he received from a company he helped win a contract from the county.

 

 

 

State prosecutor Emmet Davitt said it’s clear Dance did not report the money deliberately, even creating a document that claimed he was donating some of the money he admitted receiving to the Baltimore County Education Fund.

 

“That was a false document,” Davitt said. “No money went to the Baltimore County Education Fund. It all went to him.”

 

Davitt called Dance’s actions an egregious abuse of trust and that county students and their parents deserve better.

 

“They trusted this man and that trust was clearly breached,” Davitt said.

 

Dance is scheduled to be sentenced April 20. Prosecutors are recommending Dance receive a five year sentence, with all but 18 months suspended.

 

Dance resigned as school superintendent last April.

 

Interim county school superintendent Verletta White released a statement which said,  “We are saddened by the news but trust the judicial process. Now, we must stay focused on our students, our school system, and the important work of teaching and learning that takes place in classrooms every day. Our 113,000 students, 21,000 employees, and the Baltimore County Public Schools community deserve no less.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Lee is a reporter for WYPR covering Baltimore County. @JohnWesleyLee2
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