<p>Dolores Cross, the former Morris Brown College president who embezzled millions of dollars in government money intended to cover student tuition, was sentenced Wednesday to five years probation and a year of home confinement.</p><p>Judge Julie E. Carnes said the sentence, which was agreed on by prosecuters and Cross' attorneys, was based on her age and health and the fact that she did not benefit personally from the crime.</p><p>Cross, 70, was president of the 125-year-old college from November 1998 until February 2002.</p><p>She pleaded guilty in May to embezzling the funds. In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors dismissed 27 other counts against her.</p><p>Cross and Parvesh Singh, the school's former financial aid and enrollment director, fraudulently obtained $3.4 million in student loans and Pell grants, in part to cover a $3.3 million credit debt and school expenses, prosecutors said.</p><p>Singh, 64, also was sentenced to five years probation Wednesday and 18 months home confinement.</p><p>Morris Brown obtained the money legally but should not have kept it, prosecutors said, because loans were applied for in the names of students who never attended the college, had already left or attended part-time.</p><p>Most of the students had no knowledge of the loans or that they would be expected to repay them, court documents said.</p><p>Prosecutors had recommended that Cross be sentenced to 10 to 16 months in prison. Had she gone to trial on the single count to which she pleaded guilty, she could have faced up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.</p><p>In May, her attorneys indicated they would seek a lesser sentence because of an undisclosed medical condition.</p><p>Singh pleaded guilty to one count of theft of federal financial aid funds and had been expected to testify against Cross. Attorneys for Singh and Cross said neither defendant personally benefited from the stolen funds.</p><p>Mired in its financial and legal troubles, Morris Brown dwindled from about 3,000 students to a low of 66 last year.</p><p>Its 48 courses of study were whittled down to two and, in 2003, it lost its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools _ a sort of "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" for higher education.</p><p>Belle Whelan, president of the association's Commission on Colleges, said Wednesday that the school has not reapplied for membership.</p><p>Morris Brown is one of six institutions of higher learning that comprise the cluster of historically black colleges known as the Atlanta University Center.</p><p>Lesser known than sibling schools Morehouse and Spelman colleges, Morris Brown was founded by former slaves affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881. For more than a century, the college took many students from poor backgrounds _ large numbers of whom returned to their hometowns as teachers.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdbfa0)</p>
