I do not understand. Why is it that so many others have gone or are going to jail for misuse of the state-issued P cards, yet Dr. Lewis, who we all know and who has admitted used his P card for gasoline for his private car as well as nights at the Ritz Carlton with his high-ranking school system mistress has not yet spent one day in court?
Are we being "played"? Is there a group of DeKalb power players who will never be punished for the very same crimes that when committed by others—more ordinary—they go directly to jail without passing Go? I'm beginning to wonder if we aren't all just wasting our keystrokes.
===
Five former state revenue department employees were indicted on charges of credit card fraud after being accused of using a state-issued credit card to buy gasoline for their personal cars, state and county officials said Friday.
If found guilty, each man faces between one to three years in prison on each separate count, officials said.
52 comments:
I think my ire is that Crawford Lewis's long time mistress was promoted and promoted based on her relationship with him.
She is setting educational policy for DCSS students, going in front of the BOE and getting their approval to spend tens of millions of student dollars, and decreasing the morale of teachers who are suffering under her inept administrative management and increased paperwork requirements.
What kind of example does this illicit relationship set for teachers and students in DCSS?
This idea of using funds meant for the poorest of DCSS students to jet to the Bahamas and to spend time in $600+ a night hotel rooms with the superintendent of schools is the most egregious of insults to all of DCSS taxpayers and to our children.
Everyone in the Central Office knew of this illicit relationship. Why didn't Ron Ramsey, close friend and appointee of Lewis and head of the Office of Internal Investigations, do anything about this misuse of student funds or promotion of an employee based on an illicit relationship?
We need the decisions for these millions of dollars spent efficaciously on DCSS students made by an employee who is in this position because of merit not intimate relations with the head of the system.
And yet there are doubts of the existence of a large and effective
ghost pseudo-governmental network that is in fact running more than the DCSS school system.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/23-000-in-dekalb-833056.html
When I read this, I wondered how these two weren't arrested immediately? Why didn't Tyson/Ron Ramsey/Robert Tucker press charges immediately? Stealing tens of thousands of dollars is not worthy of immediate criminal charges from Tyson/Ramsey/Tucker and the Tom Bowen-led Board of Education? Just forwarding info. to the District Attorney is enough to them? What the heck?
We are spinning our wheels as long as the current Central Office administration is in place.
She had to know that her promotions were due to her relationship with Lewis - why else would she be with him?
She had to know that trips to the Bahamas and $600+ a night hotels with the county P-card were illegal.
Why is she still in this high paying position? Can you imagine what teachers think? Affairs with higher management will get you a higher position with greater pay? It's okay to spend student funds on expensive trips?
If everyone else in the Central Office knew, do we really think Turk and Tyson didn't know of the extra marital affair between Lewis and this high ranked administrator he promoted and promoted and used the county P-card to entertain?
Turk knew Lewis was using the P-card for personal use. He had to know this highly ranked administrator was Lewis's mistress enjoying taxpayers largesse.
Why does this high ranking administrator who has her job due to her intimate relationship to Lewis still employed, spending taxpayers' hard earned millions of dollars, and actually hurting DCSS students? What are Tyson and the BOE thinking?
The employee who is mentioned in the indictment of Dr. Lewis is not mentioned by name nor position. He haf many varied affairs with employees. The sad part is that Ramsey couldn't do anything becaus Tucker has been kept on after retiring about 8 years ago to "protect" the basses. He should be charged also. How long are we going to pay him to protect and continously add law suits to our tax bills.
great graphic!
Everyone -- please forward your complaints and hard evidence of fraud (even if previously reported to fbi & da) to the new attorney general --he's a republican and from Marietta... he just went after these state revenue agents... maybe he wants the case of his career? Give him your evidence... anyone know if there's a fraud and public corruption division in the state attorney general office? start sending your evidence....someone has got to do something -- it's way too eggregious and involves way too much money.
Who is Tucker? Is he another attorney?
I don't beleave that pope, lewis or the other two will ever go to trail. They will keep lieing until everyone has moved own.I worked for the system for over thirty years and i have seen it all. The friends and family have always ran the county and if you got in there space you could be gone or in a small room somewhere. They make the money no matter what there education back-ground is.
I was a witness in a sexually harassment case. Ramsey and dickerson at the time said that there had been other cases on the man and that it would be handle. The lady receive a letter from dr. lewis and said he did not fine that he had harassed her. After she got the letter she said if i say anything else i may lose my job. She said i can read between the lines. You see he was one of the good old boys. She was a single parent and she was afraid of loseing her job. Some people would say she should have did something but like i said you could not fight that crew in hr. There is a saying that every dog has his day , well i keep hopeing that lewis will have his day and the rest of that crew in the central office. We must all pray for the children in dekalb and the teachers.
Grammar
Could be a math teacher, you never know ;-)
Seriously, some people who may be part of the system, who have stories to tell, who may know things we don't but could use, may not be educators. But whatever education level they have, or even if they are uneducated, if they have a story to tell, it's important that it get told, regardless of "grammer."
The highly paid and placed employee Lewis was having an affair with was long term. She was promoted and promoted and went on trips with him. This was general knowledge among the Central Office and her employees. The DA has her name and so does Tyson and the BOE. What makes it so harmful is that she controls so many educational dollars and decisions for DCSS students.
Dr. Lewis and Mrs Pope or whatever her name is now, must be proven guilty by a court of law not public opinion and hearsay.
I hate this trial is taking so long but the DA does not want any grounds for an appeal. I hope he can keep his present lawyer so this cloud can be removed from the forward progress of this school system.
On what grounds could the Board of Education fire the Title 1 Director? Is it illegal to have an affair with your boss. Could be sexual harrassment in the business world? It happened at 'Coke". Lady got a lot of money and ept her job (sad but true).
By the way the trip to the Bahamas was with his wife although the p-card was used.
February 13, 2011 9:05 PM
I think you need to go back and read the basic guidelines of this blog. We do not cut individuals down regarding grammar or spelling. We respect those who share and do not put them under a microscope. Please read the basic guidelines of this site. We want everyone participating and we do not bully or cut other down for making mistakes like this.
You can disagree all you want but please follow the rules. Teachers do this to students frequently also when the student is trying to express themself in writing and many times students get totally turned off from the whole process of writing. I think everyone understand what was being said.
@ Dr. Tartt 9:44
If your read the DA's charges, they specifically say that the charges against Lewis include his trips on the P card with a female DCSS employee where no county business was conducted. Lewis's wife is not an empolyee so that let's her out.
Promotions should not be based on friends and family relationships or on sexual relationships. How disgusting that teachers of our children should have someone making educational policy and decisions on hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars due to an intimate relationship with her supervisor.
I have no idea if this person had an affair with Dr. Lewis. However, I have always heard that many got promoted at the county office this way. I hope this is not the case but it has been the rumor for years.
Dr. Tart, the information you shared is very interesting. I am sure this could be true and rumors started otherwise.
Teachers can be fired without cause. Why can this female employee not be fired? She has no contract. At the very least she should not be in a position of authority where she negatively impacts student achievement.
I also read the indictment and it only stated the trip to the Ritz Carlton was with an employee. Well, that thing was so long and I read it on the web. I really think the femalewill be used by the DA to testify against Lewis but I am just a little peon.
people, please, share your stories (evidence) with our lovely new attorney general (public fraud and corruption division if he has one) -- really he can't possibly be connected to NB....
I bet the Board has no choice in this matter at this time. I hate to see anything impact students in a negative manner but let's not let Lewis off the hook under any legal missteps.
List of evidence to be shared: evidence of Title I fruad, fte fruad, harrassment that went unpunishement or that went in reverse, promotions that were very wrong (not "minor" wrong but "major" wrong); diverted state or federal funds into the wrong pockets, other crimes and misdemeanors that you think you witnessed (e.g. with construction or purchases....). Take your little, tiny piece of the puzzle with hard evidence to the newly sworn in republican state attorney general and give him the case of his career.... :)
Dr. T.
If she were the school custodian, you'd be correct. However, she is an executive in DCSS.
Out of self-respect or shame, she should have considered resigning.
As a clinical psychologist who empower teen girls to make the right decision about healthy romantic relationship (per your website), do you not view this woman as a negative role model? Should a school system tolerate negative role models on its executive staff? If the rumors and indictments are true, are you not by your action advocating vaginal rather than cerebral empowerment?
Is it not vaginal politics that causes African-Americans and Hispanics to be over represented in the teen pregnancy statistics?
Howling at the moon.
Until ALL administrators for AP on up-including coaches, and other jobs that are not needed and/or significantly over paid and people are made to interview for their jobs and people are hired based on merit and not who they know, than the system will never change and the children will suffer.
The Friends and Family Plan and only holding certain people accountable for their actions is a huge reason why the district is in the shape they are in. How can any administrator focus on their real job-EDUCATING CHILDREN-when there are so many lawsuits and other court cases pending and who knows what else behind closed doors?
Until the district is able to put law suits like the one for the construction company, EVERYONE involved in the Lewis/Pope scandal, the Title 1 spending fraud, etc behind them, the district will never be able to fully focus on educating our children.
I don't really care who Lewis took on his trips, what he did was plain and simple WRONG. Secretaries at GA Tech misusing the Pcard have been prosecuted for less. Why is it taking so long for this situation to go to trial and get over? If Lewis really cared about the kids, he would want it all to be over, so that the district could focus on the education of the children who live in the district. I am tired of administrators and workers of DCSS saying they care about the kids, when their actions show something else.
I will correct the post. You are correct, Dr. Tartt, the AJC says that the trip with the female subordinate was the Ritz Carlton. Lewis also took trips to the Bahamas and Greensboro using the card.
In addition to the violating the state bidding laws, Lewis is accused of charging a vacation to the Bahamas to his school credit card, along with a trip to Greensboro, Ga. In March 2008, Lewis and “a female subordinate” spent a night at the Ritz-Carlton on school money, but no school business was conducted, according to the indictment.
DeKalb board: ‘This is not normal business'
I hope you all see my point though. It seems like corruption is punished all over metro Atlanta, yet our trials in DeKalb seem to be going nowhere. In addition, Dr. Lewis and the former board (including Sarah, I believe) approved very strange and outrageous spending. First, they approved a $3.6 million study to determine a counterclaim on an approximate $1 million lawsuit, and now, add to that the $15.5 million we've spent on King and Spalding attorneys and haven't seen a courtroom! In fact, now, the plaintiff (Heery Mitchell) has named 17 more people in the case -- and the current board just voted for taxpayers to pay the legal bills for those people! Add to this the cost of the Pope/Lewis trial -- on both ends -- we paid $100,000 for Lewis' defense and I'm not sure what else - but guess what - taxpayers are ALSO paying the District Attorney to prosecute! Is there no end? Bend over and stay bent, DeKalb taxpayers!
Yet here we read about these 5 people on their way to jail - for using their P Cards for gasoline. I simply don't get it. We are going broke, and having to shuffle thousands of children around in order to save just about the same amount that we're spending on lawyers.
Why does no one in power do anything? Children are suffering here - we need to stop the flow of money going out the schoolhouses and into the law firms. Get on with it - or drop it - please!
Who is Tucker? Is he another attorney?
A retired DCSS HR director who is now "working" for Internal Affairs under direction of Ronald Ramsey. He's not to be trusted. I've had personal dealings with him. He is NOT out for truth, but out to protect the bosses. The truth always comes out and will come out about him. He puts words in people's mouths during depositions by saying, "Don't you really mean to say ..." It's become a very scary situation and I chose that word very carefully. If you are ever called to Internal Affairs to be questioned, make sure you have an attorney with you and say only short answers to their questions ... do not offer more because your words of innocence, your words of incredulousness that you are even being questioned when you are the victim of a much larger war, will be twisted and turned against you to protect the guilty.
This has been reiterated and reiterated so many times on this blog by so many different people, and nothing is done. I'm not sure anyone understands why these people are untouchable, when other smaller fish are quickly found guilty and punished.
Can anyone shed some light on WHY Tyson isn't getting rid of these people? Can the new board members look into this?
Could Tyson be part of the problem, which is why she is not doing anything?
What church does she attend?
WE are not wasting our time. I have learned more about this BOE and other areas of Dekalb schools than I ever wanted to know! I inform others about this stuff and they simply can't believe it.
Vaginal politics, it's a first for me!
This is our opportunity to step up to the plate and be positive about geting out system's back in to the running of "Race to the Top". this willncrease our property values and increase student acheivement. Let' work togethher for a united DeKalb County School and be th "COME BACK DEKALB". Oh what a day? Let us be proactive and meet the challenge!
Maybe I'm missing something with this blog topic. You reference the revenue employees that have been indicted for credit card fraud. An indictment is a formal accusation of a crime. It doesn't mean the persons are guilty simply that the DA believes there is enough evidence for a trial.
Dr. Lewis has been indicted for several alleged crimes. Trials have been delayed for a variety of reasons, all above board. Why does anyone think that the trials for the revenue employees will occur faster than that for Dr. Lewis. We don't know when those crimes occurred so we don't have a timeline.
Patience everyone, the truth will come out in due time.
Anon 8:03, there is a lot of truth to your question. There is an old guard that is quietly pulling the strings in affairs in DeKalb, both with the school board and county government. Most of it comes down to who controls the money and contracts. They will allow the current leaderships to continue to hang themselves then come in and rescue the county.
Let's not forget the attempts by Lewis & Pope to buy taxpayer purchased vehicles at 50% of fair market value -- even after being warned.
@8:51... I agree, though too bad the go-to-jail card is a "Chance" card, and not a "Community Chest" one. Seems the latter is where the funds are allegedly being pilfered.
You are correct, 4:07. But it's very hard to have patience when we are spending so many resources on these people and their mishaps—criminal AND civil. This latest issue with Lewis' lawyer is ridiculous - after all this time (and most likely after having spent his $100,000) suddenly the lawyer becomes an issue? I'm not sure it's all as "above board" as you may think. There's an awful lot of stalling and stonewalling happening here. We are all beginning to wonder if we'll ever be able to move past all of this and refocus our energy (and money!) back on the task of simply educating our children. We are spending millions upon millions of dollars meant for educating children, on lawyers. Pitiful.
@ 9:55 2/13 "Promotions should not be based on friends and family relationships or on sexual relationships."
All so true. But that is the fabric of DCSS.
I often write members of the BOE. Sometimes I get an answer. You all should do the same.
SACS, Mr Elgart, has shut off his
e mail. My e mails come back. I guess that he just does not want to hear anything bad. That makes it easier to do the whitewash.
DeKalb County government is about as bad as DCSS. Another job machine that has no foresight.
I moved into DeKalb County in 1993. How things have changed...all for the worst.
I would suggest you write Governor Deal and the new State Superintendent John Barge expressing your concern that DCSS is filled with administrators who have gotten their jobs based on family, social and sexual relationships. Ask why the BOe is continuing to employ personnel who received their promotions through a sexual relationship to the former superintendent.
Express your concern that Mark Elgart of SACS is refusing emails from the very taxpayers who pay SACS salary and the parents who have children in DeKalb County schools. You might want to talk about the message of these extramarital relationships for promotions sends to our young people.
Governor Deal:
http://www.georgia.gov/00/gov/contact_us/0,2657,165937316_166563415,00.html
John Barge:
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/sup.aspx
(there is an email link on the left hand side below his picture)
Maybe this helps explain things: In an article titled "Let's Take Dominion Now!" (and also in his book Church in the Workplace), C. Peter Wagner describes Eddie Long as providing a model for city `transformation.' Wagner quotes Long's book Taking Authority,
The New Birth congregation finances and operates vital support programs in the city and pumps large sums of money and thousands of volunteer hours into key areas such as youth offender intervention programs, public school programs, and support and outreach programs for homeless women and children. We are involved in every aspect of life, and we are making a major impact in the Atlanta metropolitan areas.
This, in turn, is causing us to gain major footholds in the city infrastructure, . . . the criminal court system, public high schools, the Georgia State Senate, the United States Senate, and even into the White House itself. . . . When you are a politician in a major metropolitan area, it isn't wise to dismiss or ignore a highly unified, committed, and motivated group of voters exceeding twenty-two thousand people representing almost every voting precinct in your city.
In light of the fact that Eddie Long's church received a million-dollar grant from George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative, Wagner's analysis is striking, and all the more so for the authoritarian and intolerant nature of the new apostolic movement Long represents. As Rachel Tabachnick details, Eddie Long's teachings are both virulently anti-gay and also openly contemptuous of church-state separation.
Eddie Long and C., Peter Wagner are dominionists - they want to extend church authority over every sphere of society including the political realm. The strongly anti-democratic nature of dominionism comes out perhaps most strikingly in the doctrine of "spiritual fatherhood" that's now in mainstream media parlance especially due to the fact that Eddie Long has been accused of coercing sex from his "spiritual sons."
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/9/29/234537/872
Anonymous 10:46. You are so right about tucker is a scum ball. He will try and turn your words around to fit his purpose. I too have been in his office and i ended up walking out. He needs to go home and get a life. You are very correct when you go in his office take a lawyer and say nothing with out your lawyer's ok. I don't know how he can still be on the payroll and is retired. He never left the building. More tax payer waste.
Dr. Tucker has done much good for many DCSS employees. Just because you were in the hot seat for not doing your job doesn't give you the right to slam him.
Can we please get to a place where solutions can be discussed instead of gossiping about everyone in the system? There are more good hardworking people in DCSS than crooks. Yes, the crooks need to be held accountable so we can heal and get to the business of teaching and learning. The only problem is when given the chance, you voted some of the same problems back onto the Board of Education. So what is your solution now except for complaining?
anon 12:52
Whining?
Crawford Lewis and anyone caught using any credit card for purchases outside of the stated uses should go to jail and pay fines. If you mis-use a federal credit card, you are looking at a prison term. A former director at CDC went to prison and paid a hefty fine for using the federal credit card at Victoria Secrets (among some other places). The feds have auditors that reveiw billings. Ramona Tyson isn't required to present receipts. Our system is ripe for abuse because we do not not demand it from our board to provide rules. They don't even have an ethics policy for the board. They need one. The board needs to require receipts of all employees using government issued credit cards. That is action we should be taking. Turn over info to the DA and State and let them prosecute.
@ 12:52 There are more good employees than bad, however the bad employees are making the decisions in how the district moves forward. There is where the huge problem is. We have too many children who aren't meeting the GA standards and more schools are not making AYP each year. We have spent millions on programs designed to help this issue and the problem is getting worse not better. We have an elementary math program that has switched gears each of the 4 years that it has been in place, will next year be year 5? We have spent millions on computer programs that don't do what we were told that they would be able to do and have wasted countless hours of time. We hire administrators with little teaching experience and knowledge. One does not become a master educator in 3 to 5 years.
The decision makers in DCSS, lack integrity, teaching experience, and are connected with the wrong doings of the county. Yes, we have something to worry about and be upset about and we aren't whining. We care about the children of DCSS and want them to receive a far superior education than those in even the "best" schools are currently receiving for each and every child within our county.
Do you all actually think that Tyson will dismiss anyone who was part of Lewis' crew ? She is one of the crew. If Ralph Simpson can steal from the citizens of DeKalb and keep his job, then you know the fix is in. He is good friends with J. Wilson(HR), so he is being protected. You or I would have been fired and prosecuted. Also, J Wilson had an affair with a central office staffer and knew this person was working a part-time job while out on FMLA, and he has protected her. Maybe the internal auditor can investigate the investigators.
please take your hard evidence to the attorney general and to the FBI... give them a chance to do something putting all of the pieces together. They can't put all the pieces together unless everyone brings their little piece of the puzzle forward. So if you have a piece of evidence (not inuendo but actual evidence of fraud and corruption) bring it to both the FBI's fraud and corruption division and to the new Georgia attorney general.
Case Closed--two words for you:
Confidential Informant
http://www.confidentialinformant.org/
Confidential informants work for the government, often secretly, to gather and provide information or to testify in exchange for cash or leniency in punishment for their own crimes. Unlike witnesses, informants are motivated by self-advancement.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/196934/guide_to_becoming_a_confidential_informant_pg2.html?cat=17
In some cases, confidential informants are created by the police during interrogation. For example, if you are being charged as a co-conspirator in a crime, you might choose to "turn state's evidence", telling the police what you know about the crime in exchange for immunity or for a lesser sentence. If, however, you will not get into any trouble because of what you know, your best bet is to locate the detective in charge of investigating the crime.
or:
Cooperating Witness (pick your poison)
Any cooperating witness potentially at risk of prosecution by a foreign government, or by a state government, should ensure that the agreement with federal prosecutors expressly prohibits the sharing of information with any other governmental entity.
From the Ga. DOE, this is required in the DCSS curriculum:
160-4-2- .12 COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION
PROGRAM PLAN.
(1) DEFINITIONS…… (c) Sex education/AIDS education - a planned program that shall include instruction relating to the handling of peer pressure, promotion of high self-esteem,
local community values, and abstinence from sexual activity as an effective method of preventing acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the only sure method of
preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.
Regarding the last sentence:
“This instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.”
How can we have a person making educational policy for students when the example she sets by her actions that have become very public is diametrically opposed to the instruction teachers are required to teach students?
I believe that’s what teachers who are required to deliver this curriculum to their students are asking in a number of posts.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doe.k12.ga.us%2F_documents%2Fdoe%2Flegalservices%2F160-4-2-.12.pdf&ei=p5RmTdqpM4edtweAk_imAw&usg=AFQjCNHshmiT9yo4SeRo6J1kD1-pAFxTMA&sig2=XHC_fX5LbZm7m4rnBA9U0Q
From the Ga. DOE, this is required in the DCSS curriculum:
160-4-2- .12 COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION
PROGRAM PLAN.
(1) DEFINITIONS…… (c) Sex education/AIDS education - a planned program that shall include instruction relating to the handling of peer pressure, promotion of high self-esteem,
local community values, and abstinence from sexual activity as an effective method of preventing acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the only sure method of
preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.
Regarding the last sentence:
“This instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.”
How can we have a person making policy for students when the example she sets by her actions is diametrically opposed to the instruction teachers are required to teach students?
I believe that’s what teachers who are required to deliver this curriculum to their students are asking in a number of posts.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doe.k12.ga.us%2F_documents%2Fdoe%2Flegalservices%2F160-4-2-.12.pdf&ei=p5RmTdqpM4edtweAk_imAw&usg=AFQjCNHshmiT9yo4SeRo6J1kD1-pAFxTMA&sig2=XHC_fX5LbZm7m4rnBA9U0Q
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