“I’m not a bad person,” said Gary Barner. “I just made bad decisions in what I did.” Let’s look at those decisions. Barner served as the treasurer for Local 518 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE – which is now a part of the United Steelworkers of America) from 2002-06. During that time, he embezzled almost $30,000 from the local. When an auditor discovered the shortfall in 2006, and concluded Barner was responsible, Barner approached his father asking for a loan to cover the loss. When his father refused, Gary shot and beat him. Barner turned himself in for the assault (thankfully his father survived), and while serving his sentence, he confessed to the embezzlement. We’d hate to run into somebody Barner thinks is a bad person…
