Ex-TSU finance chief gets 10-year sentence

After four hours of deliberation, a jury yesterday sentenced former Texas Southern financial chief Quintin Wiggins to 10 years in prison for misspending nearly $300,000 in university funds on personal expenses for former TSU President Priscilla Slade. That doesn't mean the Wiggins story is over — his lawyer said he plans to appeal — but for now, we can't help but wonder how Wiggins' sentence will affect the outcome of Slade's trial this summer.

Slade, you'll remember, is accused of spending almost $2 million in public money on a variety of personal things, including furniture, gym memberships, birthday presents and china — and Assistant Harris County DA Donna Goode said she doesn't think Wiggins' situation will do anything to help Slade: "I think it's a reality check for her," she said. In Slade's trial, Goode said she expects to present four times as much evidence as she did against Wiggins. "[Slade] hit the ground running when she first became president in 1999," Goode said. That didn't sit too well with Slade's attorney, Mike DeGuerin: "Dr. Slade's trial is not Mr. Wiggins' trial. There will be different issues, witnesses, evidence and a different jury — one that hopefully will not be prejudiced by the prosecution's improper media releases."

As for Wiggins, his attorney, L. Mickelé Daniels, said he was made a scapegoat for all of TSU's financial problems. "We believe Mr. Wiggins has been portrayed as the fall guy in all of this," Daniels told the Chronicle. "One man can't bring down a university." What's important, Daniels said, is that Wiggins is sorry for what he did: "A proper punishment is not a stiff penalty," he told the AP.