by The Associated Press
Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan has died at 85 years old. According to CNN, he died March 1. His cause of death is not known.
The Atlanta native studied law at Howard University, he filed a racial segregation lawsuit against the University of Georgia in 1961, was a field director for the NAACP and the former president of the National Urban League.
Jordan was also close to Bill and Hillary Clinton, advising them during the 1992 presidential campaign. He famously stood by Pres. Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky Thomas Michael Sisk, 55, former superintendent of the Limestone County Schools; David Webb Tutt, 61; and Earl Corkren, 56, were named as defendants in the case.
The indictment alleges that the public school systems wrongly counted private school students as being enrolled in online classes to boost their attendance and gain more state funding, news outlets reported.
The districts received state funds set aside for public education and some defendants withdrew funds for personal use, prosecutors said. Others were paid for their involvement in the scheme, officials said. Nearly $7 million in state funds were improperly allocated to the districts during the yearslong conspiracy, according to prosecutors.
The private school students who were fraudulently enrolled were not aware their identities and data were being used, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the defendants had attorneys who could comment on the charges.