Carmelo "Joe" Sita spent most of this decade waiting out a prison sentence that might be avoidable. But his day of reckoning came anyway. On October 26, Sita, former longtime benefits manager for the Hudson County, New Jersey District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), was sentenced in Newark federal court to one year and nine months in prison for embezzling more than $2 million from the union. Arrested almost eight years ago, he pleaded guilty in early 2005. "I do believe that Mr. Sita, for whatever reason, thought the union was his own little bank," said U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh at sentencing. It was a belief borne out by evidence.
