Former DeKalb County schools superintendent Crawford Lewis and three others, including former chief operating officer Patricia Reid, have been indicted on charges they ran a criminal enterprise that sent millions of dollars to Reid’s then-husband and others.
In exchange for steering school construction work to Reid's former husband and other vendors, the school officials and Reid's secretary received cash, sports tickets or other perks, DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming announced Wednesday.
A grand jury returned indictments on Lewis, Reid, also known as Pat Pope, her former husband Tony Pope and her secretary Cointa Moody.
“It’s hard for us to assess the full dollar amount, but Tony Pope made over $2 million,” Fleming said. “More than $80 million in contracts were all obtained through some type of fraud.”
Much of that money went to construction companies where Reid and Pope had connections, but no one from those firms were charged.
All four were either arrested by or turned themselves into sheriff’s deputies by Wednesday evening.
Lewis was booked into the DeKalb jail just before 8 p.m. Wednesday and was released on $200,000 bond about 90 minutes later.
Reid and Pope remained jailed Thursday morning, with bond set at $1 million each, according to jail records. Moody was being held Thursday on $200,000 bond.
The indictment includes the following:
* Four counts of violating the racketeer influenced and corruption act against Lewis, Reid, Pope and Moody.
* One count of theft by a government employee against Lewis, Reid and Moody.
* One count of bribery against Lewis and Reid.
* One count of falsifying public documents against Reid.
Lewis, 56, faces a maximum of 105 years in prison. Reid, 52, faces up to 115 years in prison, investigators said.
Lewis did not return a message left at his home. His attorney denied the accusations.
“We are disappointed that the district attorney has brought these charges. They are wrong,” attorney Mike Brown told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Dr. Lewis has not committed any crimes. And we are going to fight really, really hard to prove that.”
According to investigators, the scheme had begun in 2006 and involved the three school officials concealing information from the school board, altering documents and giving work to Pope’s architectural firm.
“All of the parties used their positions and the resources of school system to facilitate theft, fraud and obstruction, whether for personal gain or for the benefit of others,” Fleming said. “The money received by Tony Pope was then funneled to Pat Pope.”
Lewis, who was terminated last month, hired Reid as chief operating officer in October 2005 to run the school district’s multi-million-dollar school construction program. At the time, Reid and Pope were still married
When she was hired, the couple was told he could complete one on-going school construction contract but could not work on any additional school projects, Fleming said.
But Lewis and Reid ignored that stipulation, the indictment alleges. The two, along with secretary Moody, 48, conspired to get Pope contracts. This was accomplished by issuing illegal change orders, altering construction projects and leaking information to Pope, all behind the school board’s back, Fleming said.
Those projects included work on Columbia High School, Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, Arabia Mountain High School and the Mountain Industrial Complex.
For the Arabia Mountain project, Reid forged the signatures of several members of a bid selection committee to steer the work to her husband, Fleming said.
Pope also collected money by working as a subcontractor for the McNair project, investigators said.
Two construction companies involved in the projects, CD Moody Construction and Turner Construction, returned the favor with premium tickets, according to the indictment.
Reid and Lewis accepted $35,000 worth of tickets for the Masters, Hawks, Falcons, Final Four and plays at the Fox Theater. They also got a table at the Atlanta Mayor’s ball, which was valued at $5,000, Fleming said.
The racketeering involved 171 different acts, including bribery, theft, tampering with evidence, mail fraud, hindering the investigation and skirting competitive bidding laws, Fleming said.
“It doesn't have to be the mob. Anybody can use an enterprise,” Fleming said.
They did violate federal laws, she said, but additional charges likely won’t be filed.
Other accusations included in the indictment include:
- Lewis used his school purchasing card to pay for a vacation to the Bahamas and a trip to Greensboro, Ga., with another school employee. Both were for personal business, Fleming said.
- Lewis and Reid also purchased cars from the school system at 35 percent of the Blue Book value. Reid's purchase was flagged and reversed.
- Moody was paid $43,000 in overtime to run errands for Reid.
When reached on her cell phone Wednesday afternoon, Reid hung up on an AJC reporter.
Reid’s attorney, Manny Arora, said he had not been forewarned of the indictments.
“I was just there [at the courthouse] 30 minutes ago and they wouldn’t see me,” Arora said. “I’ve called the DA’s office over the last couple of weeks, asking if they would give us the courtesy of informing us if they indict my client. They refused any professional courtesy and decided it’s more important to call a press conference. I just think it’s grossly unprofessional.”
When asked if he was surprised by the charges, he said, “I’m not at all. The comments that they’ve made, going back eight, nine months, it was a given they were going for the indictment.”
When asked how he felt about defending Reid against such charges, Arora said, “We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, we’ll be walking out of there with our heads held high and teach the DA a lesson.”
Pope, 52, could not be reached at his office before his arrest but his attorney, Calvin Leipold, denied the charges.
“I know that Tony has always told me that he never did anything and that he believes that he’s completely innocent of the charges,” he said. “We’ll simply defend this case to the very best of our ability.”
Pope’s lawyer said he was in contact Wednesday afternoon with the Sheriff's Department to turn Pope in but deputies were already on the way to Pope’s home and arrested him there.
“How would anybody feel in this situation? He’s concerned. He’s upset,” Leipold said of his client.
Moody did not respond to a voicemail left at her home Wednesday afternoon.
Reid, who was removed from her post in October and reassigned, and Moody are still employed by the district but will likely be placed on administrative leave, board chairman Tom Bowen said.
The school system scheduled a press conference for Thursday morning but Bowen said in a statement Wednesday that the school board was not aware of the "extent of the allegations.". Moments before announcing the indictments to the media, Fleming called Bowen.
"The board's position is that the judicial process must run its course and the board will not speculate on the ultimate innocence or guilt of any of those involved," Bowen said.
Lewis first went to the district attorney last year, asking for the investigation and saying he was concerned about Reid.
But his concern wasn’t so sincere. Investigators say he hindered the investigation by directing his staff to ignore subpoenas and he even asked the DA to “table” the investigation at one point, Fleming said.
Lewis told investigators Reid was blackmailing him with “various information,” Fleming said. The nature of that information is unclear.
“She told him she would not go down alone,” Fleming said.
The indictments came after an 18-month investigation, five-hours of testimony on Wednesday and handwriting analysis by the GBI, Fleming said.
In February, investigators raided Lewis’ Stone Mountain home and school offices, seizing computer hard drives and boxes of documents.
Hours later, Lewis took paid leave. Two months later he was fired. A month later, he was in custody.
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