Wednesday, February 18, 2004
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004 |
PTC cops bust culture of corruptionBy J. FRANK LYNCH Peachtree City police officers on routine patrol one night in late January happened upon a man hunched over in the shadows beside the city’s vehicle refueling station, inside the locked gates of the Public Works compound on Kelly Drive. The man appeared to be stealing gasoline, police observed, pumping it into a fuel can sitting on the ground. When the suspect saw the officers, he abandoned the gas can and took off on foot, scaling a fence and escaping into the night, officials say. But the alleged gasoline thief wasn’t an outsider, nor a novice at finding his way around the maintenance yard. In fact, police believe he was a former employee, one of dozens who reportedly knew not only how to slip in and out of city facilities undetected at all hours, but how to take advantage of Public Works’ near-non-existent security measures and rip off city taxpayers for much more than an occasional gallon of gasoline. During the followup investigation in the days afterward, what was initially believed to be a simple case of gasoline theft mushroomed into a full-scale investigation of alleged corruption, misconduct and criminal activity involving the top managers in the city’s Public Works division, Police Chief James Murray said. Working in top-secret and around the clock, with the blessings of Peachtree City’s mayor, council and city manager, the police department launched an intense internal investigation in the first days of February, Murray said, conducting private one-on-one interviews with scores of city employees, including every one in the Public Works Department. Assured they would not face retribution if they told the truth, many city workers confessed to being witness to years of misappropriated funds and the theft of city property and equipment. Last Friday, former Public Works Director Bobby Thompson and former Fleet Manager Tony Wood were arrested and formally charged in connection with the case. Both men had resigned one week earlier as the charges against them unfolded. Thompson, 43 of Zebulon in Pike County, and Wood, 42, of Peachtree City, were arraigned Friday afternoon in Fayette County Magistrate Court just as their arrests were announced in a press conference at police headquarters. Both men are charged with theft by taking while acting in a fiduciary capacity (felony) and falsifying statements and concealing facts of a political subdivision (also a felony). Thompson’s bond was set at $10,000, while Wood’s was set at $15,000. Among the charges, the two are alleged to have bilked Peachtree City out of an untold amount of money by having a city mechanic do repair work on private vehicles while still on the city payroll at Thompson’s Pike County home. That employee, Cameron Bolden, has also resigned his city-paid position but was not charged in the case, said City Manager Bernard McMullen. According to the police investigation, Thompson and Wood falsified Bolden’s timecard so it would indicate he was working for the city, when in fact Bolden was working at Thompson’s home, city officials say. In addition to Bolden, three more Public Works employees have also resigned, said Chief Murray, but won’t face charges because they agreed to cooperate with police. They are Paul Justus, a mechanic; Chris Bowden, a Public Works superintendent; and Curtis Benson, the department’s support services manager. According to Murray, it had become the accepted culture within the public works department to fill up private gas tanks, take tools and equipment and order parts and inventory for private use on the city’s accounts, a practice that Mayor Steve Brown declared “would not be tolerated.” Murray said the investigation is ongoing, but no further arrests are expected at this time. “We think we’ve got the top of it with these six resignations, and that we’re really on the road to putting an end to this,” the chief said. In a prepared statement read at Friday’s press conference, Brown lauded Murray’s department for doing an “excellent job with this investigation.” “Their hard work is appreciated,” Brown said.
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