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A Black woman in Ohio will spend more than a year in prison while a white woman, who stole more than six times as much money, only got probation.
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Both were sentenced last week in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, after being charged with stealing funds from their respective employers. Karla Hopkins, who is Black, received 18 months in prison for a single count of felony theft in office after stealing more than $40,000 over 11 months. On the other hand, Debbie Bosworth, who’s white, will only spend two years on probation after being charged with two counts of felony theft and 20 others charges, including records tampering and money laundering, for stealing $248,000 from her employer.
Hopkins’ and Bosworth’s sentences showcase a longtime disparity in how the criminal justice system treats people of color compared to white Americans. Black people convicted of crimes typically received prison sentences 20 percent longer than white people who commit the same offenses, according to a 2017 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Black and Latino Americans were up to six times more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences than white people, the Sentencing Project found in 2018.
“Cases like these point out the need for the system to do a better job of reviewing the data because there’s lots of disparity between the way that people of color and white people are treated,” former Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine told The Hastings Tribune. “But it doesn’t get captured because nobody’s really looking.”
Bosworth pleaded no contest after taking the funds from her job as a clerk for both the Chagrin Falls Village Utilities and Building departments, according to The Plain Dealer. Before it was discovered in 2019, Bosworth’s scheme involved pocketing resident utility payments for herself. She would then use money from the town’s buildings department to cover the missing utility bill payments.
After being found out, she stepped down from her job and went on the defensive. Bosworth hired an attorney, got a new job and used a significant portion of her $200,000 in pension to begin paying back the nearly quarter million dollars she owed. While she hoped her actions would help earn her a plea deal, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley instead opted to have a judge decide her fate.
But since Bosworth’s boss, Chagrin Falls Mayor William Tomko, didn’t ask for his former employer to be sentenced to prison, Cuyahoga County Judge Hollie Gallagher didn’t hand that down.
Hopkins, the Black woman, worked as a secretary at Maple Heights High School. With access to the school’s coffers which contained dues and other payments from students and faculty, the secretary kept $42,000 of what was collected between July 2017 and July 2018. Her crimes were discovered thanks to an internal audit, and she was indicted on third degree felony theft in May 2020.
Once again, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office opted to leave Hopkins’ fate to a county judge, recommending nine to 12 months in prison. Hopkins’ attorney said that her client had been dealing with a gambling addiction at the time of her crime but had since completed an inpatient program to address those issues, got a new job, and paid back $5,000 back to the school so far.
But Hopkins wasn’t afforded the same chance as her white counterpart. County Judge Rick Bell explained his decision to the Black woman in court before sentencing her to 18 months in prison, well above the recommended punishment, according to The Plain Dealer.
“This is not a rich public school system, you betrayed the public’s trust, you betrayed the children’s trust,” the judge told Hopkins. “I’m grateful that you’re going on a journey here in order to better yourself, but even as your pastor would tell you, there has to be some consequences for your actions.”
Judge Gallagher and Judge Bell could not immediately respond to requests for comment.
