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Unity House executive
secretary indicted

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By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

A federal grand jury has indicted the executive secretary of Unity House for allegedly embezzling more than $125,000 from the labor union's accounts during a 3 1/2-year period.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court yesterday, charges Linda Carpenter with 65 counts of theft by fraudulent means.

The indictment comes two days after Roderick "Roddy" Rodriguez, a former executive director of Unity House, was found dead at home of an apparent suicide after failing to appear for arraignment on federal charges in another fraud case involving Unity House.

Rodriguez and former Unity House consultant Roberta L.K. Cabral were charged last week in a superseding indictment with wire fraud and tax evasion in an alleged scheme to defraud the union-connected organization, which administers $50 million in assets to benefit Teamsters and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union members.

The indictment alleges that the pair schemed to profit from a $700,000 investment by Unity House in production of a television pilot film.

As executive secretary, Carpenter had access to three separate checking accounts to conduct Unity House business, the Unity House Store and the Unity House sports program.

According to the indictment, between October 1991 and March 1995, Carpenter took checks prepared on Unity House's accounts, made them payable to legitimate vendors and either forged or had the payors sign the checks, then changed the name of the payee to herself, her husband or her creditors. The amounts on the checks ranged from $607 to $5,113.

Carpenter would hide the thefts by making false entries into the check registers, according to the indictment.

Carpenter and Unity House officials could not be immediately reached for comment.