Steve Lieberman

slieberm@lohud.com

RCC professor Cliff Garner acused of stealing %24200%2C000 from union

Garner accused of overbilling by %243G for European trips

He faces maximum of 15 years

Rockland Community College's longtime union president was arrested Tuesday on charges of stealing $200,000 from the union and overbilling the college by $3,000 for several European jaunts.

Prosecutors say Clifford Garner, an English professor and faculty member, ripped off the college and union over the past four years. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison on felony charges of grand larceny and falsifying records.

"The defendant is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from an organization designed to protect its members," District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said of the teachers union. "In so doing, he is accused of violating his own professional ethics, damaging the public's trust in his union and the students' confidence in the college."

The investigation started as a look into accusations Garner had padded his hotel and other expenses during trips to the United Kingdom, prosecutor Richard Kennison Moran said.

Garner went to Britain at least four times to work with students studying abroad as part of RCC programs, Moran said. Garner is the president of the Rockland Community College Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with New York State United Teachers Union.

Moran said the investigation determined Garner had submitted vouchers for seven-day stays at hotels when he only spent two days at each facility.

Garner, 61, a Hackensack, New Jersey, resident, was ordered held in the Rockland County jail on $50,000 bail after being arraigned Tuesday by Ramapo Justice Rhoda Schoenberger. He was represented by the Public Defender's Office for the arraignment.

He's charged with one count each of second-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and first-degree falsifying business records.

Garner has been suspended and another faculty member has taken over his classes, RCC spokeswoman Tzipora Reitman said. He's been a full-time faculty member since 1986 and a professor since 1993, with a current base salary of $117,785.

The investigation was conducted by the District Attorney's Special Investigations Unit.

During the 1990s, another RCC overseas program, Judaic Studies, was caught up in a scam involving New Square officials scheming to steal millions of dollars in federal and state tuition aid through phony students and students who were not actually taking courses. Federal prosecutors indicted seven people, including high-ranking village officials.