Pat Reid testified Thursday none of the allegations against her are true.
She never did anything to help her ex-husband, architect Tony Pope, win chunks of the millions of dollars in school construction projects, an allegation included in the racketeering and theft charges against them.
Reid and Pope are charged with racketeering and theft for allegedly manipulating contracts to benefit themselves. If convicted, Reid could be sentenced to up to 65 years in prison and Pope could get as much as 30 years.
Reid testified she never had a “black box” in which she kept secrets she could use against others — a reference to a threat she is accused of making to former school Superintendent Crawford Lewis when she learned he was trying to fire her.
Reid denied saying she was “too smart” for anyone to catch her doing anything illegal in regards to the district’s building program.
It looked bad that she was in charge of construction and her husband had some school district construction contracts — either as the architect of record or in the “background — but it didn’t mean there was an actual conflict, she said. “To me, it was an appearance of a conflict,” Reid said, stressing the word “appearance.”
Reid began testifying Wednesday and was on the stand for most of Thursday giving her version of her tenure as the person in charge of construction of DeKalb Schools. Her co-defendant, Pope, testified on Wednesday.
Both the prosecution and the defense have completed their cases and closing arguments will be Friday, three weeks after jury selection began Oct. 28.
Prosecutors say Reid and Pope manipulated contracts for renovations at Columbia High School and the McNair Elementary School Cluster to benefit themselves. Pope allegedly earned more than $1.4 million that he should not have received.
The indictment also charges Reid with theft for buying her 2005 Ford Explorer at one-third the value; Reid gave it to her niece until she was told to return the SUV.
Initially, former school Superintendent Crawford Lewis was also charged with racketeering and theft and facing the possibility of 65 years in prison. Ten days before the trial started Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction for interfering with the district attorney’s investigation of Reid and him. One of the conditions of his plea deal was that Lewis must testify for the prosecution.
Lewis testified earlier in the trial that he tried to fire Reid after he learned of the alleged manipulation of the contracts and that Pope was still working on district projects, despite their agreement he would not take new projects after she was hired.
Lewis testified that he will be sentenced to 12 months probation and would not be locked up.
Reid was vice president of her then-husband’s firm, A. Vincent Pope & Associates, when Lewis hired her to fix the district’s troubled construction program. She testified that she never told Lewis, board members or any other district officials during the hiring process that she was an officer in her husband’s business but they knew she worked there because she had been their contact for discussion of the projects Pope had.
“I made the assumption that (they knew) if I’m married to Tony Pope and I’m a principal (contact) on the Columbia High School the school district knew I was part of the company. It was my husbands company.”
Prosecutor Kellie Hill made the point Thursday that the job, and their manipulations, had helped Reid and Pope escape their financial trouble and improve their personal fortunes.
Yes, Reid said, Pope owed the IRS $360,00 for employment taxes when she took the job with the school system at an annual salary of $109,000. Two weeks after she became COO Pope agreed to to repay the debt with $3,500 a month.
She acknowledged that the firm took in more money when Pope helped a contractor and another architect, both unindicted co-conspirators, adjust their proposals for the McNair renovations to win the contract.
Prosecutors say Pope used inside information he got from Reid and she, in turn, manipulated scoring so C.D. Moody and architect Vernell Barnes would win the job
And within two years after taking the job of COO in late 2005, Reid and Pope had the means to take a 12-day vacation to Italy, to travel to Costa Rico and to buy a $78,000 Jaguar.
Reid conceded that she was in charge of the district’s construction program at a time when prosecutors allege her husband made at least $1.4 million he was not entitled to. She acknowledges she she signed off on the payments but that he legitimately earned all he got.
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