An architect testified Tuesday that a contractor invited him to join in a DeKalb County school construction project as a front for Tony Pope.
Pope, an architect, was banned from district work as long as his now ex-wife, former Chief Operating Officer Pat Reid, was in charge of them for the school system.
“I feel like I got used,” said Vernell Barnes, who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in an indictment against Reid and Pope on charges including racketeering.
Prosecutors say Reid and Pope manipulated district construction projects worth millions of dollars to benefit Pope, his firm, A. Vincent Pope & Associates, and Reid’s friends. They have denied the charges.
Jurors also heard testimony Tuesday that Reid ordered changes in the scoring of construction proposals to benefit a particular construction company that prosecutors say was working with Pope.
Reid was hired in 2005 to run the school district’s construction program with a condition that Pope could finish the school district work he already had but could not get any new contracts as long as his then-wife was COO.
Two school construction projects are at the center of the charges against Reid and Pope, Columbia High School and McNair Elementary School Cluster. Testimony focused Tuesday on the McNair contract.
Barnes testified that contractor David Moody, who was also named in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator, asked him to join Moody in pursuit of the McNair contract.
“I was elated about it,” Barnes said. “No one had given me any consideration before.”
Barnes, in business for himself, said he hoped connection to the project would get him more work, especially in school construction.
But Moody asked him to work with Pope. Barnes would be the architect of record, and Pope would be a consultant or would provide peer review of his plans.
Barnes said he agreed and hoped that “working with Tony Pope would help” him make points with Reid.
But several times, in conversations and in emails, Barnes said, he was told Pope’s involvement “cannot be disclosed.”
Barnes said he went along because he was desperate to build his business and to get his name recognized in construction circles.
And for a while, Barnes was told “by people involved in this that there was nothing illegal,” he said.
Yet, none of his designs were even considered once C.D. Moody Construction won the contract, Barnes testified.
“I shouldn’t have got caught up in this whole affair,” Barnes said.
Prosecutors say Moody Construction won the McNair project in 2006 only because Reid changed scores given for proposals submitted by several contractors.
Paulette Strain, who worked for Reid, told jurors earlier Tuesday that Reid had told her before the scoring that she liked Moody. After scores were tallied, Strain said, Reid ordered her to flip the companies she put in first and second positions so Moody would be on top.
Strain said Reid told her “this is not what we discussed and I needed to change the answers.”
Strain said she felt she had no choice because she needed the job because she was taking care of her ailing mother who lived with her.
Strain testified that she eventually called the owner of the company that she originally ranked No. 1.
“She told me Nix-Fowler (Constructors Inc.) should have got the contract,” Clarence Nix testified later in the day.
“She told me she had to change my score,” he said.
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