YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A former Youngstown State University union head accused of theft and other charges has been found not guilty on all counts, and Ivan Maldonado says now he plans to fight to get his job back.

"Three years it took to get to this point to prove my innocence. As I claimed all along, I was falsely accused," Maldonado says."

Maldonado not only lost his job at YSU. He faced 16 charges that included falsification, grand theft, tampering with records and theft in office.

Maldonado was accused of using his position at the university to help employees receive pension benefits they were not entitled to.

He was also accused of passing off his nephew as a dependent, so he could attend YSU without paying tuition.

But now Maldonado is embracing the verdict and his family, and plans to fight immediately to get his job back at the university, "I'm hoping to petition for expedited arbitration to get this matter behind me and back to work."

When asked why the university went to such great lengths to prosecute him, his Attorney Gerry Ingram had this to say, "Animosity arising by Mr. Maldonado's effective representation of his union members."