The Heery/Mitchell Backstory

I'm going to create a thread that only discusses and links items about the Pat Pope, DCSS, Heery/Mitchell construction case. The trial is scheduled to begin in March, so there should be plenty to report in the coming months. We will provide links to stories as they become available in this post. Stay tuned!

This story was first brought to our attention just about one year ago, when Dr. Lewis suddenly decided to ask the DeKalb District Attorney to investigate the office of Pat Pope (COO and head of construction for DeKalb schools). Basically, one day seemingly out of the blue last December, the DeKalb County DA stormed Pope’s office and confiscated her computers along with other work items. Dr. Lewis, who asked for the investigation, said he would reveal results in one week. Months later, we were told that the DA was very busy and the results would not be available until May.

This small story was mentioned two months later in the Community Briefs in the Metro Atlanta Journal Constitution on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009.

The results finally of the allegations of irregularities with DeKalb County School’s construction contracts, in Pat Pope’s office, have finally been forwarded, to the district attorney’s office. The school system forwarded this review to the district attorney’s office and requested that “a few things” to be looked into, to make sure a criminal investigation was not necessary. The school system would not cite specifics because the investigation was still open and ongoing.

A month later, the AJC reported the following,

Probe into school construction contracts continues
By KRISTINA TORRES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It may be at least May before we learn the results of an internal review into allegations of irregularities with DeKalb County school construction contracts, according to a spokeswoman with the district attorney’s office.

The school system forwarded the review to the D.A., asking that a few things be looked into and whether a criminal investigation was warranted.

An investigator in the district attorney’s office is juggling the schools review along with several other cases, said D.A. spokeswoman Jada Hudspeth, and it may take until May to complete them all.

Hudspeth declined to give specifics about the schools review. It involves the office of Patricia Pope, the school system’s chief operating officer. In December, school system police officers and information systems employees examined records from Pope’s office.

Then all was fairly quiet, until one day in October, when Atlanta Unfiltered published an update on the situation. This was the first time that the public heard the "little investigation" was actually "complex and enormous". We created a discussion thread at the time called "The Pat Pope Debacle".

DA: DeKalb school construction probe ‘complex & enormous’
Atlanta Unfiltered
October 5, 2009
In March, the DA’s office said the investigation might not be completed for a couple months. ...Seven months later … “The case is complex and enormous in scope which is resulting in an extended investigation. We will share our findings when we complete the investigation,” Keyes-Fleming said Friday in a e-mailed statement in response to Atlanta Unfiltered’s questions.

October 14th, Ella reported that the GBI will now assist the DA with the investigation.

Then, on October 22, Kim reported (from a highly reliable source) that Pope had been "relieved of her duties". Everyone assumed that meant fired, but we later discovered that it only meant they were going to hire a team of consultants to replace her while she served out her contract in a barren office at another location.

On November 3, during the school board meeting, Fox 5 News reported on the construction management change. Of course, this was not discussed at the board meeting at all.

Recently, on November 16, Atlanta Unfiltered reported,
DeKalb construction probe complicates multimillion-dollar suit on cost overruns

DeKalb County schools’ multimillion-dollar damage suit over construction cost overruns may be undermined by a criminal probe of school contracts.
The school district has been locked in a court struggle nearing epic proportions since it suspended its construction management firm, Heery/Mitchell, in 2006. What began with the contractor’s claim for roughly $500,000 for unpaid invoices has escalated to the point that DeKalb, in a counterclaim, seeks damages of up to $125 million for mismanagement. The file for the court case is more than five feet thick.

This week, The Champion published a story about Heery/Mitchell requesting copies of the seized documents.

Construction firm wants access to seized school district documents
Written By: Jonathan Cribbs
11/27/09

A years-long lawsuit between the DeKalb County School System and a construction firm became more complicated this month after the company demanded access to documents seized by investigators last month in a separate probe.

Heery/Mitchell, a management firm that formerly worked for DeKalb schools, believes it was removed from the district’s SPLOST II and SPLOST III construction programs in 2006 so the district’s chief operations officer, Pat Pope, could take over the projects. Pope’s office has been the subject of a county investigation into contracting irregularities, and investigators seized documents from a district building in Tucker where she works on Oct. 13. The office of her husband, Anthony Pope, an architect who has designed several county schools, was also searched.

The school system booted Heery/Mitchell, citing cost overruns at several projects, including McNair and Henderson Mill elementary schools, Arabia Mountain and Columbia high schools and the Mountain Industrial Center. When Heery/Mitchell sued, looking for owed payments, the school system filed counterclaims, seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages.

In court documents filed earlier this month, Heery/Mitchell attorneys said they need to see the documents investigators seized because they contain evidence.

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Stay tuned and please add information in the comments as it becomes available.