A judge Wednesday set the bond amount for the former president of the Broward Teachers Union facing criminal charges at $480,000.
Pat Santeramo, 64, surrendered to authorities Tuesday and is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the teachers.
The charges against Santeramo include racketeering, six counts of grand theft, five counts of campaign contribution violations, four counts of money laundering, three counts of organized scheme to defraud and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering.
The judge denied the defense’s request to lower the bond to $250,000 after Santeramo’s lawyer, Benedict Kuehne, argued that his client was a long standing member of the community and had been cooperative with authorities.
Following the bond hearing, Kuehne told reporters that Santeramo retired from the BTU because it was the right thing to do at the time and had nothing to do with the charges.
"Mr. Santeramo resigned for reasons that benefit the Broward teachers, the organized labor, he believed it was appropriate to do to provide new leadership to the Broward Teacher’s Union," Kuehne said. "He is a man who believes in the cause of public school teachers and public school employees and that was the right decision to make for teachers and his community at the time."
He added that Santeramo is not guilty and he hopes to get him out of jail soon.
"Mr. Santeramo Has acted honorably at all times and has never acted with the intention to do anything in violation of the trust that the teachers and the community placed in him," he said.
