Davenport, Ia. — A federal jury Thursday convicted two central Iowans for their roles in the CIETC salary scandal but found that only one participated in a conspiracy to defraud taxpayers out of nearly $2 million in job-training money.

Jurors deliberated for 25 hours over three days before they found Karen Tesdell, a former accountant at the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium, guilty of conspiracy and 28 other fraud-related charges.

Jane Barto, former deputy director of Iowa Workforce Development, a state oversight agency, was convicted of trying to block the investigation.

Former board of directors member Dan Albritton was freed on all charges. Jurors said there was a lack of hard evidence that tied him to the alleged scheme.

Reaction to the verdicts ranged from Tesdell's attorney saying she was devastated to a prosecutor declaring he was satisfied with the results.

Albritton lashed out at reporters. "The news media was not factual in the case," he said outside the courthouse. "They were dealing with side issues, but the facts came out."

The case had been moved from Des Moines to Davenport because of intense publicity that began March 31, 2006, when a state audit uncovered the alleged misspending. In the months that followed, CIETC became synonymous with government corruption, cost a Des Moines city councilman his job, and forced state and local governments to scramble to repay federal agencies a negotiated $1.3 million settlement.

Tesdell, who prosecutors claim took hush money to ignore blatant violations of federal rules, now faces more than 160 years in federal prison, although lawyers said any sentence would likely be far less than 10 years.

Attorneys for Barto and Tesdell immediately talked of appeals Thursday, and a still-unresolved motion before U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt to throw out the cases for a lack of evidence. Pratt, who left Davenport before the verdict because of a family medical emergency, could rule on the motions as early as next week.

"Karen's devastated," Tesdell's lawyer, Tim McCarthy, said. "We didn't think the verdict fit the facts."

Barto faces no more than a year behind bars, since jurors found her not guilty of the more-serious conspiracy charge - apparently believing, lawyers said, that she tried to block the CIETC investigation for her own benefit and not to aid Ramona Cunningham, the agency's former executive director, who has pleaded not guilty to 30 fraud and conspiracy charges.

Barto "didn't conspire to do anything," her attorney, Leon Spies, said.

Jurors contacted Thursday said they could find no solid proof that Barto was part of an overarching plot.

U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker nevertheless pronounced his office "satisfied with the verdicts."

"The jury obviously felt without a doubt that Karen Tesdell did everything she was accused of doing," Whitaker said. "We got all our evidence in against all the defendants, and we still have one out there waiting to be resolved."

Polk County Supervisor E.J. Giovannetti wished good riddance Thursday to a scandal he believes has tarnished all government.

"We the public have kind of gotten duped by this whole thing," Giovannetti said. "I think CIETC really marred the image of local government, at least in my experience. I'd like to see it go away."

Cunningham, who was the focus of much of the testimony during the two-week trial, awaits a hearing to determine whether she is mentally fit to stand trial.

Federal authorities contended during the trial that roughly $1.8 million was misspent at CIETC in a three-year conspiracy to funnel government cash into excessive executive salaries and bonuses.

Money intended for job-training programs instead was used to pay people who didn't work on those programs and to reward CIETC employees while they did yard work or made on-the-clock trips to gamble in casinos around the state. Tesdell, witnesses said, was one of several CIETC officials who told employees how to fill out their time sheets.

Prosecutors contended through seven days of testimony that Barto attempted to conceal knowledge of the pay scandal and that Albritton orchestrated CIETC policy changes to make it easier for executives to cheat.

Tesdell, prosecutors argued, knew what was going on and accepted "supplemental pay" to keep quiet.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Purdy acknowledged in closing arguments Monday that there was "no smoking gun" to spell out details of the plot to defraud.

"Most cases don't have a killer standing over the body with the gun," Purdy said. "You've got to do the work. You've got to put the pieces together."

The pieces placed before jurors centered on the fact that Cunningham and former chief operating officer John Bargman both pocketed hefty paychecks between 2003 and 2006, when CIETC unraveled.

Cunningham took home more than $368,000 in the agency's 2005 budget year alone. Much of the cash came in near-monthly bonuses that were approved with no oversight from CIETC's governing body beyond board Chairman Archie Brooks, who was forced to resign his City Council seat in August 2006.

Cunningham still faces 30 fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges.

Brooks, who testified as part of a deal connected to his guilty plea in October, confessed in court this month that he had a 15-month sexual relationship with Cunningham while many of the bonuses were being paid. Brooks denied signing at least 10 letters that authorized bonuses.

From Bargman, who also testified as part of a plea agreement, jurors heard that Cunningham pursued Barto to get more money for CIETC and that Cunningham arranged bonuses for Tesdell "to keep her mouth shut."

Other witnesses said Barto told an Iowa Workforce Development accountant to stop an examination into CIETC's use of $200,000 Barto arranged for the agency to receive at the end of June 2005. Barto removed a state whistle-blower from his pursuit of CIETC salaries, witnesses said, and she failed to tell her boss, Richard Running, of problems at CIETC until a state audit was imminent. Prosecutors said those steps, plus an alleged attempt to talk a U.S. Labor Department official out of investigating CIETC, equaled obstruction of justice.

"Almost every time she was asked to choose between running IWD and helping out her friend Ramona, she chose Ms. Cunningham," Purdy said Monday.

But Spies insisted to jurors that such a notion couldn't survive a reasonable doubt.

"Ramona Cunningham was a user, a manipulator, a misrepresenter, and she was still lying to her own people even after" CIETC began to unravel, Spies said. "Jane Barto would not sacrifice 26 years of public service just to feather the nest of John Bargman and Ramona Cunningham."

Iowa Workforce Development's director, Elisabeth Buck, said she was "glad that this portion of the CIETC trials is finally over."

“We need to continue to develop new strategies to deal with the pending workf orce skills shortage which is facing our state," she said. "As an agency, we are committed to ensuring the stringent oversight and monitoring of public funds to prevent issues such as this from occurring in the future.”

All three defense teams had insisted that government lawyers had failed to link their clients to Bargman and Cunningham, the alleged architects of the conspiracy. McCarthy stressed in closing arguments that "Ramona Cunningham called the shots ... not Karen Tesdell. For her to get sucked in on this is just plain wrong."

Albritton's attorney, Paul Scott, on Monday called the case "riddled with reasonable doubt." He left Thursday without comment. Scott, who called no witnesses in Albritton's defense, said prosecutors had failed to prove an agreement by Albritton to join the conspiracy.

Government lawyers contended that Albritton and Cunningham concealed their romantic relationship partly to hide a contract that earned Albritton $16,000 over two years as a consultant. Scott stressed, however, that it was Cunningham, not Albritton, who tried to hide the relationship when she told an employee that Albritton was gay.

"It's just as likely that Ramona doesn't want Archie Brooks to know that she's dating Dan, because then her meal ticket is gone," Scott told jurors. "Which one is more reasonable?"

Purdy contended that Albritton in 2002 helped push through changes in CIETC personnel policies that consolidated power in the hands of Cunningham and Brooks. Board meeting minutes show that CIETC officials voted on the policies after they were endorsed by Albritton, apparently without understanding all the included changes.

Scott argued that prosecutors had failed to prove that Albritton changed anything and that the policies could just have easily been changed in secret by Cunningham.

Public reaction in Des Moines was immediate.

Jennifer Ayers, who heard about the verdicts while on a trip through the skywalks, said she was unsatisfied with the verdict but was confident the scandal's fallout will outweigh any punishment.

"I think they got what they deserved," Ayers said. "I hope it weighs on their conscience longer than their time in prison."

Marcia Barfield of Des Moines said she believed "they all should've been convicted."

"It seemed to me that Tesdell certainly got her due, but the higher-ups are still free," she said.

Reporter Jeff Eckhoff can be reached at (515) 284-8271 or jeckhoff@dmreg.com