Former superintendent of schools pleads guilty.(NE Journal: A Look at News From Northeast Arkansas)

A former Marmaduke School District superintendent has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of wire fraud conspiracy.

Jerry Don McIntosh, 63, who was superintendent from 1973 until November 2004, was sentenced to two years of probation.

McIntosh, along with brothers Ray Mike Graham and James Mark Graham, was indicted in May 2008 over charges tied to a plan to receive unearned retirement benefits from the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.

The U.S. Attorney's Office dismissed the charges against the Grahams in August after they repaid ATRS a total of $227,500, which was the money they received plus 8 percent interest. They also agreed they wouldn't receive money from ATRS until they reached age 60.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release that when the Grahams retired from teaching in 1993, they didn't have enough years of service to draw retirement benefits from ATRS. McIntosh told the men that they could accrue more years of service if they drove school buses for the district, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

But to earn a year of service, the Grahams had to work at least 120 days a year. By the late 1990s, they were working at the most only 30 days a year.

"Each quarter, Mr. McIntosh would certify or cause to be certified reports to ATRS showing that the Grahams had worked 30 plus days a quarter when he knew they had not worked those days," the release said.

McIntosh could have been sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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