Gary Rodrigues, former state director of the United Public Workers and once considered one of the state’s most powerful figures, has to serve another year before being released from a federal prison in Taft, California. His projected release date, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is August 27, 2012.

Rodrigues was sentenced to 64 months in 2002 after his conviction on 101 counts, including mail fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement for arranging kickbacks from union insurance contracts, including nearly $400,000 in consulting fees channeled to two companies owned by his daughter.

My series of investigative stories on Rodrigues brought public attention to the union leader’s misuse of power within his union, and were credited by prosecutors at the time with paving the way towards his indictment and conviction. My last story as a reporter for the Star-Bulletin was a front-page piece on the indictment. The following week the newspaper was sold to David Black and I was out of work.