Lynne Stewart Daughter Faces Legal Troubles

The daughter of a defense lawyer who was convicted of passing on messages for a terrorist client allegedly falsified documents to get out of her job as a teacher in the Bronx to attend her mother's trial, school investigators said yesterday.

The daughter, Brenna Stewart, is accused of using fake doctor's notes and changing the date on an aunt's death certificate to explain absences from work during the Lynne Stewart trial, a report by the special commissioner of investigation for schools, Richard Condon, said. Stewart was convicted of helping Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman — imprisoned for life for planning to attack landmarks in New York City — communicate with his followers in Egypt.

Investigators said Brenna Stewart enlisted her sister, a physician practicing in Florida, to write a note excusing her from work on the day of her mother's sentencing in October 2006. They also said Ms. Stewart submitted notes from a non-existent doctor to take sick days to which she was not entitled.

On another occasion, she claimed she was attending the funeral of an aunt who had died three years earlier, submitting the altered death certificate as evidence, investigators said.

Ms. Stewart has worked for the Department of Education since 1984, most recently as a physical education teacher at the Bronx Leadership Academy II.

The school's principal contacted investigators after noticing that the phone numbers on the doctor's notes were the same as those listed on Ms. Stewart's emergency contact form.

Ms. Stewart could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Condon recommended that the teacher be fired. A Department of Education spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, said the department was "pursuing termination proceedings against" her.