"Texas Southern case limps to end"

"Spending scandal led to just one conviction"

Adapted from: Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press, via The San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS, Sunday, July 13, 2008.

"HOUSTON -- Students at Texas Southern University often have to work their way through college, and most of them need financial aid to follow in the footsteps of alumni Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland at the historically black, open - enrollment university.

"But the school's president, Priscilla Slade, dressed in Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.

"Her 25 - place dinner set cost $40,000.

"Her couch cost $17,800.

"The former accounting professor was using university money to dress,decorate and landscape her house, take spa treatments and exercise classes.

"The scandal outraged the city and Slade, with her sleek - coiffed hair and dazzling smile, became a symbol of excess.

"Prosecutors charged her and two associates with crimes that could have put them behind bars for life.

"It didn't happen."

TSU Senior Mr. Jarel Brown: "I'm mad."

"The fizzle with which the scandal ended disappointed some students.

"I'm mad, especially after tuition started going up and all, and then this happens, said senior Mr. Jarel Brown.

TSU Junior Ms. Nancy Oluwatopi: "I'm pretty upset at what she did."

"Junior Ms. Nancy Oluwatopi said the suspension of state funds meant she didn't get the financial aid she was counting on.

"I'm pretty upset at what she did, I'm extremely upset, she said.

"It's just too many problems that weren't supposed to be there.

"Prosecutors said they had to weigh the importance of retrying Slade against the cost of another trial.

"They might have had a difficult time in a retrial since several jurors in her trial expressed support for her.."

Humm ... or were they outright tampered with? :)