OAKLAND, Calif. -- Former Black Panther leader Huey Newton received a suspended two-year prison sentence for stealing $15,000 in state education funds for a community school run by the group.
Newton, 47, was originally charged with 33 counts of grand theft and embezzling $600,000 from the now-defunct Oakland Community School between 1980 and 1982.
Most of the charges were dropped in pretrial hearings.
Prosecutor Eugene Kaster agreed to dismiss seven other charges Tuesday in exchange for Newton's no-contest plea to one count of cashing a $15,000 state check for his own use.
Superior Judge Winton McKibben sentenced Newton to two years in state prison but reduced it to six months in county jail on the condition Newton serve 18 months' probation.
Newton was also ordered to pay a restitution fine. The amount will be determined after the probation department makes a recommendation to the court. A hearing was set for April 28.
Charges against Mark Alexander, who was chairman of the board of directors of the Panther school, were dismissed. Prosecutors said he apparently helped Newton but did not receive any of the money.
Newton, a co-founder of the radical Black Panther Party in the 1960s, has been serving a 90-day sentence at San Quentin Prison since Feb. 14 for violating parole in a separate case. He was arrested at an Oakland motel for possession of narcotics paraphernalia.
He was paroled from state prison in December 1987 after serving nine months of a 16-month sentence for possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.
