DA Descends on DeKalb Superintendent’s Home and Offices
Decatur Metro | February 25, 2010 | 10:45 amUPDATE: WABE’s Charles Edwards has posted a pic from the scene where police are STILL inside Lewis’ home. The raid started at 7am, according to Edwards.
Whoa. From the AJC…
The DeKalb school board chairman says Superintendent Crawford Lewis is cooperating with investigators as they search his home and three school offices.
The search is part of an ongoing criminal investigation into multimillion-dollar school construction projects.
The DeKalb district attorney’s office served a search warrant at Lewis’ home in the Southland subdivision in Stone Mountain around 7:30 this morning. Around the same time, investigators showed up at the DeKalb school headquarters on North Decatur Road with a second search warrant.
Investigators are now searching the two school board buildings on North Decatur Road and the Sam Moss Service Center on Montreal Road in Tucker, said Orzy Theus, a spokesman for the district attorney.
Other than the tipped-off AJC, it sounds like this has taken everyone by surprise. Burrell Ellis showed up at the scene and asked the AJC what was up. The DeKalb Board of Ed is holding an emergency meeting tomorrow morning at 9am.
Geez a-loo.
About….time. These people regarded DeKalb school system as their personal piggy bank for too long. I want to see some indictments and I want to see some prison time.
Stealing from children is the lowest of the low.
What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I have a friend who works for DK schools who says the cronyism is the worst they’ve ever seen and they once worked at Atlanta city schools. Now that’s sayin’ somethin’!
During the last set of CSD School Board elections, it was brought up that there’s family connections between CSD and DeKalb school system leadership. Doesn’t mean there’s a problem but hopefully CSD won’t be tainted by this as an innocent bystander.
Bit of a stretch at this point, don’t you think?
yeah. that’s inflammatory.
I agree with both DM and james. I wish the posters on this site would remain above engaging in needlessly inflammatory speculation. Any time we find ourselves using the phrase “doesn’t mean there’s a problem, but…” is a good time to stop and stomp on our inner tabloid reporter.
I think all Karass was saying is that she(?) hopes that people don’t engage in “inflammatory speculation” with regard to Decatur. You may want to read a little more carefully before getting your undies in a wad!
After going back and reading Karass’ original comment, I take your point Walrus. But it doesn’t read completely like “i hope no one engages in inflammatory speculation”.
This part “…but hopefully CSD won’t be tainted by this as an innocent bystander.” doesn’t make sense and sorta leaves the door open.
Why would CSD be tainted for being an innocent bystander? Maybe Karass could explain.
They could be tainted by the inflammatory speculation (even though they are an innocent bystander). However, I agree, we should let Karass explain.
Actually, I don’t know enough myself but it came up as a question during the Candidate Forums which are in the archive somewhere. So if someone knows the info for sure, go ahead and explain.
My undies are straight and comfortable, thank you. It’s simply that karass’s comment came across to me like, “I heard something’s not quite right, gee, I hope that doesn’t come out,” and therefore struck me as a little disingenuous. It’s entirely possible that was unintentional on karass’s part, but that’s how it sounded to me.
Haha! Good to know!
Before I make a false assumption, can you please clarify what the family connection is? If it is who I think it is, then the fact I am even having to get clarification shows that some segment of the population don’t know the facts and are completely off base.
Karass,
I just reread my post and wanted to clarify that I was not referring to you as being off base. I just wasn’t aware of this being discussed during the recent elections. Glad you mentioned it, but would like to hear specifically as to what these people were referring.
You LOST the election Karass …. unless you have a direct accusation and are willing to put your real name behind hit … move along.
my guess is…
First the DA asked nicely for the public records (on the Pope dealings) and Lewis said no.
Then the DA filed an Open Records Request for the PUBLIC RECORDS and Lewis said no.
I guess a search warrant was the next step.
Yeah, Ridge, I thinks that’s how it all went down. The Super should have known it would come to this if he didn’t cooperate. Let the books fall where they may !
another guess:
Lewis’ motivation may be avoiding any possibility of a civil lawsuit by the Popes -er- I mean some school administration officials under investigation.
If he provides this so-called “private information” because of a warrant obligation, he’s not liable for preserving an expectation of privacy, the DA is.
sounds like a real rumor hootenanny!
maybe it is something deliciously salacious like a hot teacher hooking up with a student… again.
If you take a pay hike, and ask everyone in your charge to take furloughs and cuts, you better be squeaky, squeaky clean.
I’m guessing someone called the DA a month or two back and offered up some interesting documents. The DA, crossing t’s and dotting i’s, took his/her time to get things straight before dropping in to see the gentleman.
Yes, I called him “gentleman.”
Not sure what anyone meant about the “family connections” between CSD and DeKalb school system. I do know that Decatur Schools hired DeKalb School System school buses.
Also, Julie Rhame (Sydney’s mom!) is a Decatur School Board member, a CSD parent, and she works for the DeKalb School System in their PR or spokesperson’s office. (So she’s got her hands full with media this morning!!!)
Apparently she is the Senior Director, Public Relations at DeKalb County School System.
Karass, wasn’t the inquiry about Valarie and her husband both within the CSD? I don’t remember the issue being family relations between CSD and Dekalb.
I don’t know enough to comment on the school issue – but Diane said something hilarious:
After years of contributing tirelessly to the Decatur community in so many roles – Julie’s better known now as “Sydney’s mom”! That’s priceless.
Well, Sydney’s gotten more press than her mom, lately!
I believe Valarie Wilson’s husband is Carter Wilson, the Athletic Director at Decatur High, and her mother-in-law was/is Elizabeth Wilson, who was Decatur’s first black mayor.
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong.
You are correct, Diane.
George, you crack me up! My favorite “title” in the world is being Sydney – and Skylar’s – mom! Despite all the “tireless contributions” to Decatur, the best thing I’ve ever done was having these two wonderful girls.
And yes, I do work for DeKalb Schools in my “day job”. (As far as my title goes, we were reorganized over a year ago, and I no longer handle Media and Public Relations – someone else was promoted and now handles that. I’m the Sr. Director for Communications and PDS-TV 24 (Channel 24 on Comcast). I’m responsible for the system’s television production and for getting the good news out about the school system. Check out our blog at http://www.dekalbkaleidoscope.com/ for an example of the multi-media work we do
Yes, it’s been a shocking, surreal week to say the least for us in DeKalb Schools. But I want to assure you that this turn of events has nothing to do with CSD. This is all related to the Pat Pope investigation and is not related to “nepotism” that was referenced during the candidate debates.
Despite the media reports, there are so many wonderful things happening in DeKalb Schools thanks to the talented staff and students in the district at almost 150 schools. I could easily produce a daily newscast of “good news stories” if we only had the resources to do it.
And Diane, I’m SO glad that Sydney is getting more media attention than me. She’s certainly more deserving and is a much more “interesting story” to say the least! In the time it’s taken me to write this entry, she’s already written another song. It’s called “Daddy Says” and she’ll premiere it tomorrow in Harmony Park at 3:30 pm when she performs at the Oakhurst Wine Crawl. She – and her sister – continue to humble me on a daily basis!
Add this to your list of reasons to thank the Good Lawd that Decatur has an independent school system.
I’ve heard Dr. Lewis speak a number of times and his passion about students in DeKalb receiving a good education is real. I know that ultimately as the one in charge, the buck stops with him, but I also can’t understand the personal attacks that the AJC is generating. How did they know to be at his home when the warrant was there? What about the headline today – front page metro “DeKalb Schools(sic) chief readies ax: Superintendent aims to sever 148 positions. Come on.
What was factually wrong with the headline?
As for media being present when the warrant was executed, that’s why reporters spend years building sources that will tell them such things.
I imagine good city editors have a big fat file of dirt on most political figures and a propensity to use that information when those politicians start hurting the public. Closing four schools while accepting a raise probably went past that line for somebody.
AJC: “DeKalb superintendent temporarily steps down”
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-superintendent-temporarily-steps-328667.html