DeKalb school corruption suspects plead not guilty

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County schools’ former chief operating officer may have violated school board policies, but she didn’t break any state laws, her attorney argued Friday.

Patricia Reid is one of four people charged with running a criminal enterprise at the state’s third largest school system.

On Friday, Reid; former schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis; Reid’s former husband, Tony Pope; and her secretary, Cointa Moody, pleaded not guilty in DeKalb County Superior Court.

A judge now will decide whether some of the charges should be dismissed, as defense attorneys have argued, and if there is a need to move the trial out of DeKalb, as requested by Reid’s attorney.

A grand jury indicted the four in May on charges of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, theft by a government employee, bribery and falsifying a public document.

Prosecutors say Reid steered multimillion-dollar school construction projects to her then-husband’s architecture firm and select vendors. In exchange, Reid, Lewis and Moody received cash, sports tickets or other perks, prosecutors said.

“This case is about people who took money they were not entitled to. They knew they weren’t entitled to it,” Special Assistant District Attorney John Floyd told the judge. “They altered documents to hide it. They created false documents to facilitate it.”

On Friday, Reid and Lewis’ attorneys asked the judge to dismiss many of the charges, arguing that the lengthy indictment does not show that the two school officials committed any crimes.

Brenda Joy Bernstein, Reid’s attorney, said her client may have violated a few school board policies, but did not break any state or federal laws.

“None of it can you say, aha, here is the violation of law, here is the violation of Georgia statute,” she told the judge. “They are calling them acts involving theft," she said, but on their own they are"nothing more than a violation of board policy and perhaps a mere violation of state competitive award policies, which is at most a misdemeanor.”

But prosecutors say there are “scores” of instances over three years that show Reid was the mastermind behind this criminal scheme.

“To some extent, Ms. [Reid] is reading the indictment with one hand over her eye,” Floyd said. “The indictment alleges 32 acts involving theft and acts of 13 false statements.”

Prosecutors allege the defendants funneled more than $80 million  in contracts to associates through some type of fraud. Pope directly received more than $2 million of that, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the criminal activity, which began in 2006, involved 171 different acts, including bribery, theft, tampering with evidence, mail fraud, hindering the investigation and skirting competitive bidding laws.

Lewis’ lawyer, Mike Brown, argued that the superintendent wasn’t aware of many of Reid’s actions, only signing off on things he entrusted to her. Brown also said that the superintendent never asked for the high-priced tickets from vendors, including tickets to the Masters in 2008 and 2009.

Judge Cynthia J. Becker didn’t buy that argument. “Do you have to ask to be bribed?” she said.

The defense attorneys also argued that the defendants are just “associates” and co-workers, not co-conspirators of a criminal enterprise.

Lewis’ lawyer tried to distance his client from Pope. “Don’t shake Tony’s hand,” Brown whispered into Lewis' ear as they walked into the courtroom.

Reid also asked the judge to move the trial outside DeKalb, arguing there has been too much publicity in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and saying the alleged victims include potential jurors -- parents and taxpayers.

"All we want is a fair and impartial jury that doesn’t have that connection of the school system," said her attorney, Bernstein.

The defendants declined to talk to the AJC, other than Pope saying he is ready to get the trial -- no matter where it is -- over.

“I’d rather have this thing [the trial] sooner than later, but I want to have time to be prepared,” he told the AJC before the hearing.

The four defendants remain free on bond.

Continuing coverage

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began investigating school construction and spending in DeKalb County in October. Since then, the AJC has broken numerous stories detailing the scope of the scandal that culminated with the four indictments in May. The paper will continue to follow school spending and the case throughout the legal process.