CHICAGO (AP) — Former Chicago Bears star Roland Harper has been placed on probation for two years for acting as a front man in a $1.5 million fraud involving a Chicago Public Schools landscaping contract.
A judge ordered Harper on Tuesday to spend the first year of his probation under house arrest.
The former fullback's defense attorney, Patrick Cotter, says the 56-year-old entered the deal with honest intentions. Cotter says Harper hoped to learn the landscaping business, but instead found himself enmeshed in a tangle of corruption and didn't pull out.
Cotter says Harper may have been a great football player but he is a "terrible businessman."
Prosecutor Barry Miller says Harper is a good man who violated the law.
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