(July 12, 2008)--Texas Southern University students often have to work their way through college, and most who attend the historically black, open-enrollment university in Houston need financial aid to follow in the footsteps of alumni Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland.
But former TSU President Priscilla Slade dressed in Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana while serving as TSU's president. Her 25-place dinner set cost $40,000.
Her couch cost $17,800.
The former accounting professor was using university money to dress, decorate and landscape her house, take spa treatments and exercise classes.
The scandal outraged Houston, and Slade became a symbol of excess with her sleek-coiffed hair and dazzling smile.
Prosecutors charged her and two associates with crimes that could have put them behind bars for life, but that didn't happen, but after two high profile trials, including a mistrial, the cases are ending with little fanfare.
After a mistrial, Slade has agreed to pay back $127,000 of the more than $500,000 she misspent from the university.
Former TSU vice president Bruce Wilson agreed to repay $12,000.
Charges were against another defendant were dropped.
The only conviction prosecutors obtained was against former TSU finance chief Quintin Wiggins, who got a 10-year prison sentence, but he was approved for parole earlier this month after serving little more than a year in prison.
In the view of one Houston lawyer not associated with the case,
"It's clearly not what the prosecution originally envisioned when they started this case."
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