The founder of a publicly funded school for some of D.C.’s most vulnerable students faces up to two years in prison for his role in a computer-theft ring. Charles Emor is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court this morning. He was convicted last year of conspiracy charges after a jury found that he had bought computers stolen by his friends from the loading dock at the Gateway computer plant in Hampton, Va.
Emor, 46, is the founder of SunRise Academy, a private school in D.C. that takes in learning-disabled and emotionally disturbed children from the public schools. Almost all of the school’s $3.6 million budget came from federal funds.
The school has received $20 million in federal funds since 1999.
According to evidence presented at Emor’s trial, Emor conspired with five men — including two D.C. child welfare officials and a shipping clerk at the Gateway factory — to buy and then resell dozens of the stolen computers, which the shipping clerk lifted off of Gateway’s dock. The five men all pleaded guilty to charges in the case.
It’s not clear what happened to all of the up to 70 computers stolen, but some wound up at the school.
Academy officials have resisted requests to pay restitution to Gateway. School officials testified during Emor’s trial that the computers the school received were broken and couldn’t be fixed.
School principal Gertrude Edwards — who uses the name “Makini Niliwaambieni” — told The Examiner last year that she thinks her school is being victimized by Gateway’s efforts to recover the lost computers.
“This giant corporation didn’t do what they should have done to secure the property,” she said.
