Charter official gets probation for obstruction of justice

Clarification: The following article should have made it more clear that Chalker, a veteran educator, was sentenced in federal court to three years probation after admitting she had obstructed justice relating to a scheme by charter founder Dorothy June Brown to defraud the schools. In addition, The Inquirer wants to make it clear that Chalker was not charged in any fraud related to the Agora Cyber Charter School.

Joan Woods Chalker, a veteran educator who admitted helping charter founder Dorothy June Brown cover up a scheme to defraud the schools, was sentenced in federal court Friday to three years' probation.

She also was directed to pay $69,156 restitution, as she had promised to do in her plea agreement.

"I'm extremely sorry for what I did," Chalker, 78, told Judge R. Barclay Surrick. "I greatly regret it."

Chalker, who has a doctorate in education, said she had not intended to hurt any of the children or the schools where she worked.

She had pleaded guilty to three counts of obstruction of justice and testified against Brown in a federal fraud trial that ended in a hung jury in 2013.

Under sentencing guidelines, Chalker had faced a potential sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison.

Chalker had worked with Brown since 1989 and eventually became her top lieutenant. Chalker testified during the trial that she had fabricated bundles of documents, including several emergency loan agreements between schools that were submitted to federal investigators.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Burnes told the judge that obstruction charges go "to the heart of the judicial process." She said evidence presented at trial showed that Chalker's involvement in fabricating records and covering up evidence was "not an isolated incident."

But noting that Chalker had pleaded guilty, cooperated and testified against Brown at the trial, Burnes said the government was not seeking to send Chalker to prison.

"She acted at the direction of the more culpable coconspirator," Burnes said, referring to Brown.

Chalker, Brown, and three other charter administrators were initially indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2012, and accused of participating in a scheme to defraud the charters of more than $6 mil.

Chalker was expected to testify against Brown again. But the retrial was scrapped and Brown's criminal charges were dropped last fall after medical experts found the 78-year-old educator was not competent because she was suffering from dementia.

Brown founded three traditional charter schools in Philadelphia: Laboratory in Northern Liberties and Overbrook, which opened in 1998; Ad Prima in Kensington, which opened in 2004; and Planet Abacus - now known as Keystone Academy - in Tacony, which opened in 2007. She also founded the Agora Cyber Charter School, which opened in 2005 and had been based in Devon.

At one time Chalker was the CEO of Planet Abacus.

As Chalker's attorney, Joseph Poluka, was describing his client's otherwise-exemplary record, Angelique Smith, a former Agora parent, interrupted from the second row.

"What about my child?" Smith shouted during a brief outburst.

Smith is one of five Agora parents whom Brown sued for slander and defamation in 2009 after they raised questions about the school's finances and its relationship with a management company Brown operated.

The suit Brown filed in Montgomery County alleges the parents' comments gave "the clear but false impression that Dr. Brown is corrupt, incompetent, and possibly criminal."

The case, which was put on hold during Brown's criminal proceedings, is still pending.

Smith sobbed throughout the rest of Friday's brief hearing.

Afterward, she berated federal agents, to whom she said she had given information about Brown and two federal prosecutors, for not helping the families mired in the civil case.

"I still have a lawsuit hanging over my head, and I can't get it dismissed," Smith said. "June Brown could not have done what she did without the help of her friends," Smith said in a reference to Chalker and others.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello told Smith that his office was not a party in the civil case and could not get involved in it.

Last week, Anthony Smoot, a former business manager of Brown's charter network, was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $3,500. Smoot, who also had testified against Brown, pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice and aiding the obstruction to assist Brown.

martha.woodall@phillynews.com215-854-2789@marwooda