GUILTY: Racketeering Charges Proven Against DeKalb School Employee and Ex-Husband

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A DeKalb County jury convicted former school district chief operating officer Pat Reid and her ex-husband, architect Tony Pope, of stealing from the school system by manipulating millions of dollars in construction contracts.

The jury found the former couple guilty of racketeering. Jurors also found Reid guilty on one of two theft charges and found Pope not guilty on a theft charge.

Reid, who oversaw the district’s vehicle fleet as well as its construction, had been charged with theft for buying her county-owned Ford Explorer at one-third its value. She was found not guilty on that charge. But jurors found Reid guilty of theft for having county employees fix the vehicle before she purchase it. Jurors declined to convict Reid and Pope of another theft charge for billing the district for an attorney for Pope.

The jury reached its decision after deliberating over most of three days.

It has been more than three and a half years since Reid, Pope and former Superintendent Crawford Lewis were indicted on charges concerning things that happened as far back as 2005. All three were facing the possibility of decades in prison.

But 10 days before jury selection began on Oct. 28, Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction for interfering with the District Attorney’s Office investigation of him and Reid and is now looking at only 12 months probation because he kept his agreement to testify for the prosecution. He is to be sentenced later.

Prosecutors say the former husband and wife manipulated contracts for school renovations so that Pope received more than $1.4 million that he should not have received.