Sentencings delayed, again
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 15, 2012 1:50 AM
Sentencing has been delayed again for three men involved in a bid-rigging scheme involving Wayne County Public Schools.
David Lee Tedder, 50, of Selma and former school employees Danny Lee Langley, 54, of Snow Hill and Earl Wayne Rhodes, 58, of Pikeville were to have been sentenced last week in federal court in New Bern.
However, sentencing for all three has been reset for Sept. 6 at 9:30 a.m. in New Bern.
A fourth defendant, Pamela Carol Turner, 45, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 8.
It has been three years since the investigation into the bid-rigging was initially launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
Langley, former director of maintenance for the county schools, and Rhodes, former assistant director, gave Ms. Turner's company, All American Roofing and Construction in Johnston County, the price it needed to bid to win school contracts between 2002-09, court documents allege.
The two men were allegedly paid a cash percentage after the school system had paid the company. All American employees falsely accounted for the cash payments to the two men as "job materials" -- a cost of goods sold.
On some occasions, Tedder and Ms. Turner would submit fake, complementary bids to lend legitimacy to what was otherwise a corrupt bidding process, according to court documents.
Ms. Turner was charged on July 20, 2010, and pleaded guilty Sept. 14, 2011, to structuring transactions to evade a reporting requirement. Tedder was charged on April 1, 2011, and pleaded guilty on June 14, 2011, to conspiring to commit bribery concerning local programs receiving federal funds.
In December, Langley pleaded guilty to bribery and Rhodes pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery. A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment in the case on Aug. 16, 2011.