Pope files for annulment during DeKalb school construction probe

A DeKalb County schools employee under criminal investigation for possibly steering construction contracts to her architect husband has filed for an annulment.

The district attorney is looking into allegations that former chief operating officer Patricia "Pat" Pope helped her husband, architect Anthony "Tony" Pope, and his friends get contracts for multi-million-dollar projects.

Court records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show Pat Pope filed for an annulment from Tony Pope earlier this month, saying 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.

According to a petition filed in DeKalb Superior Court, Pat and Tony Pope married on Valentine's Day in 2005, and they have lived separately since October.

The district attorney declined to say if Pope’s pending annulment would affect the investigation, which is slated to be wrapped up in less than three months.

"We are on schedule to complete the investigation by the end of May," district attorney's spokesman Orzy Theus said Monday.

Pat Pope, along with her attorneys Manny Arora and Deborah Heineman, did not return phone calls Monday.

Tony Pope’s attorney, Cal Leipold, said he expects the couple to reach a mutual agreement in the case. "I would imagine it would be done amicably," he told the AJC.

Last month, investigators searched DeKalb Schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis’ home and school offices as part of a search warrant. After the search, District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming said she needed 90 days to wrap up the probe.

The search on Feb. 25 was the first time that Lewis became intimately involved in the investigation. Lewis took a leave of absence several hours after the search.

Records obtained by the AJC through an Open Records Act request show the investigators seized hundreds of documents from school offices, including blue prints for schools, overtime sheets and journals from Lewis’ office.

Investigators also seized records about Lewis’ personal vehicle – including maintenance logs and registration -- and his purchasing card documents for four years. Lewis had previously been investigated for questionable gas purchases on the card.

On Monday, the district attorney said she could not talk about which car the records concern or any of the other items seized from school offices, saying she could not comment on the investigation.

It’s unclear what investigators took from Lewis’ Stone Mountain home. The district attorney declined to release those records.

Lewis referred calls to his personal attorney, Mike Brown, who declined to comment.

Lewis is on leave, is still getting paid his annual $255,000 salary and has use of a district-issued car. He also gets to keep his credit card and a portion of his expense account, board chairman Thomas Bowen told the AJC on Monday.

Last week, the board voted to give $500 of Lewis’ expense account to Ramona Tyson, who is serving as interim superintendent, Bowen said. The board issued a contract to Tyson, but she will remain at the $165,035 salary she was making as deputy chief superintendent of business operations.