MACON, Ga. — This is a column of opinion and analysis by 13WMAZ's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Randall Savage.
So how in the heck can a disgraced former school superintendent shell out $47 million to a school system that he helped bilk out of $8.4 million during his two-and-a-half-years on the job?
U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell handed down the $47.5 million judgment against Romain Dallemand on Tuesday. That came after a hearing on the Bibb County Board of Education's lawsuit against the former superintendent.
Dallemand didn’t attend the five-hour court proceeding, partly because he’s now an inmate in a federal prison near Pensacola, Fla. The U.S. Marshals service offered to bring Dallemand -- handcuffed and shackled -- to the federal court building in downtown Macon.
He declined the opportunity to remain at the federal prison that features a swimming pool and other recreational activities for prisoners.
The former superintendent is serving an eight-month sentence after pleading guilty to accepting $460,000 in bribes for his assistance in making the $8.4 million swindle happen.
That put Dallemand in the same category as Al Capone, the Chicago gangster who became famous during Prohibition.
Federal agents didn’t bust Capone on his alleged murders and other illegal activities. They nailed him for failing to pay income tax on the money he pocketed while conducting his alleged illegal activities.
Federal officials didn’t prosecute Dallemand for his alleged part in the Bibb school chicanery. They busted him for failing to pay income tax on the $460,000 bribe money they say he pocketed to keep his mouth shut about the bilking.
After leaving Macon, Dallemand ended up drifting to Florida, where he lived when his income tax case went to federal court.
This spring, U.S. District Court Judge Sheri Polster Chappell sentenced Dallemand to eight months in prison and also ordered him to pay $300,000 restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
A court-ordered attorney represented Dallemand at the Florida hearing. Dallemand told Chappell that he was broke and had been unable to get a good-paying job since he left Bibb County. He said his income had shrunk to $800 a month, which he earned as an Uber driver and convenience store clerk.
“My wife is the breadwinner for my family,” he said.
Chappell ordered Dallemand to pay the IRS $20 a month while he was in federal prison. Federal guidelines stipulate that inmates can earn from 12 to 40 cents an hour.
If Dallemand charmed prison officials into paying him the top 40 cents an hour, and paid him for 8 hours per day, he’d knock down $3.20 a day. That means Dallemand would earn roughly $89.60 a month counting weekends, and a total of $716.80 during his eight-month incarceration.
RELATED: Dallemand civil case brings $1 million-plus for Bibb school district, but costs $1 million-plus, too
His $20-a-month restitution payments means the IRS gets $160 of the $716 he'd earn while jailed in our hypothetical example. That leaves Dallemand with $556 to put toward his $47.5 million legal judgment, minus whatever he was allowed to keep to spend at the jail store.
Should Uber and the convenience stores ignore Dallemand’s prison record and put him back on their payrolls, he could began knocking down his $800 a month before taxes. The IRS will probably want a little more than the current $20 a month to pay down that $300,000 restitution he owes them.
Dallemand is 50 years old, so how in the heck can a disgraced former school superintendent ever pay the $47.5 million he owes Bibb County schools? He’ll be lucky to repay the IRS the $300,000 restitution in his lifetime.
Through it all, the Bibb school board members who opposed Dallemand, from his hiring to his resignation, continue pounding their chests and strutting around the county mumbling, “I told you so.”
Maybe he'll win the lottery?
