The president of a Dallas company that provides food services for several jails around the state, along with the company itself, has been found guilty in the bribing of a former Potter County sheriff.
Mid-America Services Inc. will pay a $100,000 fine for engaging in organized criminal activity, according to the terms of a plea agreement finalized Friday in Collin County.
This comes a day after Robert Austin Jr., Mid-America president, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of giving a gift to a public servant. Mr. Austin, who was accused of using bribes to obtain contracts, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine.
Potter County will receive the fines from both cases, which were moved to McKinney from Amarillo on a motion for venue change.
The guilty pleas are the culmination of a two-year investigation by the FBI into public corruption allegations against former Potter County Sheriff Michael Shumate.
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7 comments:
Grits, This really puts a spotlight back on former sheriff Jim Bowles and his association with Mid-America.Did he participate in a similar scheme? Why was there never any effective investigation done at the time? How many other counties have thos company and how many other sheriffs are sweating about now? This is not an isolated incident
I wonder why no one has done anything about what happened in Smith County with this vendor. A few years ago a K-9 account (supposedly used to take care of animals used for search and rescue) was discovered in which money was funneled from this same commissary vendor and checks were written to individuals within the sheriff's department for unknown purposes. This account was clearly used to funnel kickbacks from Mid-America. But, as usual in Smith County public corruption is tolerated.
subject: Notification of Request for Opinion (Texas Attorney General's Office) - 9/12/08
Good afternoon:
We posted 1 Request for Attorney General Opinion: RQ-0738-GA
RQ-0738-GA
Re: Authority of a sheriff to accept a fee from a private organization that contracts with the sheriff's county to operate the county jail
Go to: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/
50abbott/rq/2008/pdf/RQ0738GA.pdf
Check out the latest Attorney General opinion request as to whther companies like CiviGenics can pay a county sheriff a fee for contracting out the county jail.
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/
50abbott/rq/2008/pdf/RQ0738GA.pdf
They should investigate Kaufman County and Karla Stone, Howard Tygrett, and that hillbilly sheriff too.
It is better to let go an element like him and keep cleaning the system from people who only look for their own interests.
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