Roy Johnson singing to the Feds
Posted by BrianFrom AL.com:
Roy Johnson, the fired chancellor of Alabama’s two-year colleges, is expected to plead guilty and cooperate with federal prosecutors leading the ongoing criminal investigation of the system.
U.S. Attorney Alice Martin has scheduled a press conference today “to announce a major development in the public corruption investigation” of the college system, although the news release announcing the event did not offer specifics about what she plans to discuss. Efforts to reach Martin and others on her staff for comment Wednesday failed.
…
Dozens of legislators, their close relatives and businesses received jobs in the system, and some of those arrangements are under federal investigation.
As Kristopher points out, there are some folks getting “real nervous” right now.
I’d like to remind readers who may have missed it the first time about the campaign contributions from a company that admitted to being involved in a kick back scheme with the two year college system to state school board member Mary Jane Caylor. You’ll have to pay attention because it gets complicated since it involves the murky world of PAC to PAC transfers. Read the original story here.
Reader’s Digest version:
Tim Turnham’s company, Alabama Contract Sales, overcharges the state for furniture. They split the illicit proceeds with Roy Johnson, who was then the chancellor of the two year college system. The operation gets busted. Turnham admits his role and cooperates with authorities. Among other things, Turnham said that he gave school board member Mary Jane Caylor $7,500 for her failed mayoral campaign in Huntsville (Turnham’s company is in Auburn by the way). He said that Johnson hand delivered the money.
By researching campaign finance documents from the state and Madison County I identified the $7,500 that was funneled through PACs into Caylor’s campaign fund. The money was transfered from the PACs to her campaign on the same day according to both sets of campaign finance documents, which bolsters the claim that the money was hand delivered - a claim that Caylor denies.
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January 25th, 2008 at 1:16 am
I don’t know the details of any of this, other than what you have posted here, but I can’t help but wonder what pretense the feds are using to get involved in this case.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Lee P - Johnson plead guilty to “Count 12 - Conspiracy to Commit Fraud Concerning Federal Program Funds”.
Johnson’s plea agreement refers to a “State Board of Education member who was running for Mayor of Huntsville” (Mary Jane Caylor). She was also mentioned in the Tim Turnham guilty plea last Summer.
Bottom line (really, this was in like the last paragraph):
“Johnson used his official position to assist the relatives of Members of the State Board of Education obtain employment within the Department of Postsecondary Education. Johnson provided secret political support to Board Members by directing money and other campaign assistance to them. Johnson also used his official position to secure and retain employment for legislators within the system.”
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/aln/press.html
Today’s Bham News from Pulitzer Prize-winner Brett Blackledge summarizes the plea deal:
Two-year college investigation shifts to Alabama legislators and board of education members as former Chancellor Roy Johnson agrees to plead guilty
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/120125255542090.xml&coll=2
January 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Note that the newspapers are playing “Name that Party”.
Any guesses?
January 27th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Reactionary,
I’m just wondering if the federal involvement is based on the RICO statute or what. It seems that the scandal involves state officials, state institutions, and mostly state government money. Seems that any federal gov’t interest in the matter is incidental, at best.