Chicago Bear receives probation for fraud

Former Chicago Bear Roland Harper. Roland Harper (born February 28, 1953 in Seguin, Texas) is a former professional American football player who played running back for eight seasons for the Chicago Bears. was sentenced to a year of house arrest Tuesday for acting as a front man in a $1.5 million fraud involving a landscaping contract for Chicago public schools Chicago Public Schools, commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians, is a school district that controls over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois. .

U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah also required the 56-year-old former fullback to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $25,000 in restitution and forfeit To lose to another person or to the state some privilege, right, or property due to the commission of an error, an offense, or a crime, a breach of contract, or a neglect of duty; to subject property to confiscation; or to become liable for the payment of a penalty, as the result of a $50,000. He'll also serve two years of probation, including the year he is confined .


Harper, who was in the same backfield with Walter Payton. Walter Jerry Payton (July 25, 1954 – November 1, 1999) was an American football player, who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. He is remembered as one of the most prolific running backs in the history of American football. , pleaded guilty last year to mail fraud. Defense attorney Patrick J. Cotter

[Origin unknown. said Harper is now broke and faces an array of civil lawsuits stemming from the failure of a trucking business he had owned.

"Roland Harper may have been a great football player but he is a terrible businessman," Cotter said.

Harper, who is black, was hoping to learn the landscaping business but soon found himself the front man in a plot by a white landscaper to get a contract set aside for a minority firm, Cotter said. Harper went into the contract with honest intentions, his attorney said.

Landscaper Aiden Monahan was sentenced in April to three years and five months in prison after pleading guilty as the mastermind of the fraud.

Prosecutors said Monahan owned the equipment and the workers used on the contract and that Harper would go to the office about twice a week, say hello to employees, meet briefly with Monahan and leave. He received only about $80,000 of the $1.5 million in contract money.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Miller.said Harper immediately cooperated with prosecutors after they confronted him, but that contract fraud is a serious problem in Chicago and he needed to be punished.

Prosecutors asked Darrah to sentence Harper to 16 months — below the federal guideline range and as such a reward for helping prosecutors convict Monahan.

"This city is fraught with corruption," Darrah said, adding that Harper's cooperation could be an example to others who know about federal crimes.

Harper apologized to the court and the city.

"I'm sorry that so many people who look up to me I've let down," he said.

As he left the courthouse, Harper told reporters that he had been caught up in "unfortunate circumstances."

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