Schools
Jury Selection Continues in DeKalb Schools Racketeering Case
The District's one-time chief operating officer and her ex-husband were indicted more than three years ago.
Jury selection began on Monday in the racketeering and theft trial of DeKalb County School District’s one-time chief operating officer and her ex-husband.
Two weeks ago, former Superintendent Crawford Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer and will next testify against Pat Reid, and her ex-husband, architect Tony Pope.
All three were indicted in 2010 on charges that included racketeering for an alleged plot to misuse tax dollars intended for new schools. Lewis, who acknowledged two weeks ago that he had tried to derail a probe into the state’s third-largest school district’s construction contracts, faces a maximum punishment of 12 months in jail. He had faced up to 65 years if convicted.
The trial is expected to last at least four weeks as prosecutors will attempt to show how Reid manipulated the system to funnel millions of dollars in construction project contracts to Pope’s architecture firm or friends of Reid.
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Jury selection could be completed by Wednesday.
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