Phantom board members testify in charter founder's trial
Jurors in the federal wire-fraud trial of charter school founder Dorothy June Brown on Thursday heard from three phantom board members who purportedly approved management contracts that enriched companies Brown controlled.
Lynn Bull, a reading specialist in Luzerne County, said Brown asked her in 2007 to serve on a charter board. But she said she expressed concerns about getting to board meetings because she lived in Williamsport. Also, she was never told the name of the school.
Bull said she never attended any board meetings and - until federal investigators contacted her - had no idea her name appeared in meeting minutes and other documents indicating she had served on the boards of two of Brown's four charter schools between 2005 and 2008 and was an active member.
Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan E. Burnes whether she had attended a May 6, 2006, Agora Cyber Charter School board meeting in which the minutes indicated she had voted to hire Brown's Cynwyd Group, she replied: "No, I did not.
