Robert Moore, the corrupt Richmond Heights' superintendent who was caught extorting payment from a day care worker operating on school grounds, has been sentenced to one year in prison. Richard Muse, Moore's bag man, church buddy, and the district's nominal grounds keeper, was sentenced to 10 months.
Both had pleaded guilty in April in order to receive reduced sentences.
Here's a piece from Scene's UpFront section in early April which never made the rounds on the blog. Though Moore's lawyer characterized his client's extortion as an aberration from an otherwise stellar career, teachers in the Richmond Heights school district felt that his career, and his inflated persona, unequivocally sucked.
The story:
Teachers in the Richmond Heights School District are “happy as clams,” now that superintendent Robert Moore is no longer part of the daily picture.
Dr. Moore, “Bobbie” to his friends, was recently indicted on charges of extortion, and faces new charges of tampering with district records along with Richard Muse, the schools’ director of grounds and maintenance. To the enduring bafflement of faculty members, both Moore and Muse remain on paid administrative leave.
Nonetheless, “there’s a whole new vibe of joy,” in the halls, one grade-school teacher, who asked that his name not be used, reports to Scene.
This teacher describes Moore as “an abrasive personality,” “arrogant,” “boisterous,” “bullying,” who routinely demonstrated a “horrendous lack of respect,” and verbally assaulted teachers on the reg.
Among other things, teacher evaluations did not figure into Moore’s interpretation of the superintendent’s duties. He was a man who once claimed the men’s faculty bathroom for his own personal use, locking the door and telling male faculty and staff to use the ladies’ room.
He’s a man who gave himself a new office and then outfitted that office with a brand new furniture set and a security system during a time when teachers were duct-taping textbooks for lack of funds.
Moore, a pastor and owner of the Cathedral Worship Center in Euclid, had a habit of employing his church members in school positions: Persuasive rumors have circulated that both Richard Muse and a human resources employee were among them.
“We need a human resource guy like we need another Robert Moore,” the Richmond Heights teacher clarified for Scene.
“This was an absolute abuse of power,” the teacher said. “Moore was more inclined to puff his chest and to show that he was the boss than to actually work to better the school. The morale was horrendous.”
Moore was appointed by the Richmond Heights School Board in 2012 after serving as principal of the elementary school and then interim superintendent. He first made news last month when he was busted in a sting, extorting at least $3,700 from a former teacher who was operating a daycare center out of space she rented from the district
