Annulment granted for subject of DeKalb schools' probe

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An annulment will help embattled DeKalb County schools administrator Patricia “Pat” Pope move on while under investigation by the district attorney, her attorney said Thursday.

A DeKalb Superior Court judge granted an annulment Tuesday for Pope – now Pat Reid – and her former husband Anthony “Tony” Pope.

Authorities are investigating whether Reid, the school system’s former chief operating officer, illegally steered multimillion dollar school contracts to her former husband's architectural firm and their friends' construction companies.

On Thursday, Reid’s attorney said his client is trying to distance herself from the criminal probe and her former husband.

“I’m sure it [the investigation] didn’t help the relationship issues with all the stress,” her attorney Manny Arora told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Until this thing is done, she’s got to live her life.”

With the annulment, Reid and Pope are considered “unconnected by any nuptial union or civil contract whatsoever” and are able to remarry, according Judge Robert Castellani’s order.

Records show Reid asked for the annulment in March because she was “unknowingly” married to someone else. Records say she had filed for divorce from her previous spouse in 2001 and did not know that it was dismissed.

Reid and Pope married in 2005, but have lived separately since October. When she went to file for divorce from him, she learned about the paperwork glitch in her previous divorce, Arora said.

District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming won’t talk about the criminal investigation, but she previously said she had no plans to file bigamy charges against Reid. The criminal probe is slated to be completed by the end of May.

Pope was reassigned from her position as chief operating officer but still gets her salary of nearly $200,000.

Earlier this month, the school system terminated its contract with Superintendent Crawford Lewis, who is also under investigation.