Ex-vendor pleads guilty in Skiatook schools bribery case
BY RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
5/02/12 at 4:41 PM
A former vendor from Oklahoma City pleaded guilty Wednesday to offering cash bribes totaling $10,000 to former Skiatook Public Schools Superintendent Gary Johnson.
Tulsa County District Judge Tom Gillert accepted the “blind plea” of Rick Enos, 59, to four counts of bribery of a public officer or public employee. Johnson, 57, pleaded guilty in July to four counts of accepting those bribes.
Gillert scheduled the defendants next court date for June 15.
“Gary Johnson solicited the bribe and Enos paid it,” District Attorney Tim Harris said outside the courtroom. “That’s really what this is about. Now, the justice and the fairness of how the students get made whole is the restitution. Because it’s so large and will take such a long time to pay that money back for anybody, that’s what we’re arguing about.”
A blind plea means no agreement has been reached regarding punishment. But inside the courtroom Wednesday, Harris said he is agreeable to probation for the defendants if they can make restitution he has previously indicated would exceed $500,000.
Enos' attorney Scott Keith declined comment.
Tulsa County grand jury indictments unsealed in 2010 accused Johnson, who later resigned, of embezzlement and bribery in connection with a state audit that found overspending by the school district for supplies and equipment.
The audit found that the district paid Enos -- through his former companies E&E Sales and Austin Security -- $570,000 more than it would have paid for custodial supplies and security equipment had it bought them directly.
With Johnson agreeing to plead guilty to bribery, the grand jury indictments were dismissed.
Associated Images:
Rick Enos at the Tulsa County Courthouse for Skiatook schools bribery scandal. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World
|
