Architect Tony Pope said he was more an artist than a businessman in his defense of charges that he conspired with his ex-wife, former DeKalb County school chief operating officer Pat Reid, to manipulate construction contracts worth millions of dollars to benefit themselves.
DeKalb County prosecutors rested their case against the two Wednesday morning and Pope was the second of the two witnesses that were called in his defense. Reid told the judge that she, too, planned to testify.
Reid and Pope are facing the possibility of decades in prison if they are convicted of racketeering and theft for allegedly manipulating construction contracts for Columbia High School and the McNair Elementary School Cluster; 65 and 30 years respectively.
Prosecutors say Pope continued to work secretly on school district projects even though one of the conditions of his then-wife’s employment overseeing construction was that he could get no new work from the system.
Pope said there were not discussions about the other projects he was working on when Reid was named COO. He said the only limits discussed were on Columbia High School renovations; he could finish the contract he had but he could not get more for that project.
But it was never put in writing nor was his contract changed, Pope testified.
Prosecutors say he over billed the district.
Pope was that was a mistake.
“I’ve proven myself to be just the artist,” he said.
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