He started with a paper route and parlayed that into the biggest newspaper group in the world.
The above sentence may be a lie but it is close enough for me.
Two contributors to the WFDS linked me to this view from the CBC of the great man who, apparently, slept and read his way through jail. Way to go homey.
Conrad Black wasn't the model inmate his defence team paints him to be, but rather shirked tutoring responsibilities and used other inmates as servants during his time at a Florida prison, according to filings to be heard at his resentencing later this month.
In an affidavit filed in a U.S. court, a unit manager at the Coleman prison complex in Florida says the former media baron demanded special treatment and gathered an entourage of inmates who acted like servants for him.
"Those inmates cooked for Black, cleaned for him, mopped his floor, ironed his clothes, and other similar tasks. That is not at all frequent at Coleman," Tammy Padgett said in the document.
She added that Black's assigned case manager reported that he demanded to be called Lord Black the day he was released on bond last summer, awaiting the outcome of an appeal.
"Black told (her) words to the effect of 'I believe I should be addressed as Lord Black from this point forward,'" she said.
In another document, Carrie De La Garza, an education specialist who supervised Black as a tutor, claims he was a haughty and uninterested mentor.
"He projected the attitude that he was better than others in the class, both faculty and students. A lot of the inmates looked up to him, and there were some who saluted him each day in class," she said in the sworn testimony.
Black said frequently late
De La Garza claims Black was frequently late and often read or worked on writing what appeared to be a book while he was supposed to be teaching.
"In addition, Black elected to take a piano class, which caused him to miss parts of the GED (General Educational Development) classes. Of the three tutors assigned to my class during the time Black was an inmate at Coleman, Black put in the fewest hours," she said.
The affidavits will be taken into consideration when Judge Amy St. Eve, who presided over Black's original trial in 2007, hears arguments later this month on whether Black should return to jail on two remaining convictions.
De La Garza's depiction of Black's time as a tutor is at odds with his defence team's claims, which argue in its court filings that his contributions to the community "were nothing short of extraordinary."
"Few indeed could take credit for guiding more than 100 GED candidates to graduation, and Mr. Black's work with his colleagues to more than double the number of graduates (including several who had been written off as hopeless causes) is truly commendable when one considers the very difficult circumstances he faced," the defence filing said.
However, De La Garza refuted the claim with figures showing there had been no increase in the graduation rate of the prison's students, instead saying there has been a decline to 81 in 2010 from 87 in 2007.
Black's lawyer, Miguel Estrada, earlier filed documents in advance of Black's resentencing that tout his contributions to the community during his 2 1/2 years at Coleman, and his continuing support of those students since his release last summer.
"Mr. Black stared into the darkest and most devastating period of his life and found the power to improve the lives and opportunities of those whom he encountered," the filing said.
Black freed since last summer
"He did so quietly, humbly, and with no effort to draw attention or praise to his accomplishments."
Black, who had been serving a 6 1/2-year sentence in the U.S. federal prison, has been freed since last summer after the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed the "honest services" laws used to convict Black of defrauding Hollinger International investors.
An appeals court subsequently reversed two convictions, but upheld two others — on fraud and obstruction of justice. He is scheduled to be resentenced on those charges June 24.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal of those convictions last week, meaning Black won't be cleared of the charges, but could remain free if the judge decides to allow him time served on the counts.
The U.S. Attorney believes Black's original sentence of 6 ½ years should be reimposed.
Black's empire once included the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London and smaller papers across the United States and Canada.
The Canadian-born businessman was freed on bail from a Florida prison last year while he appealed his conviction for defrauding investors. He had served 29 months of a 78-month sentence for the original four convictions.
Shirkers. I love shirkers.
WFDS
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