All RICO defendants remain

Judge Matthews takes no action on requests for clarification or removal from the Floyd County Schools complaint.

Despite court arguments, all of the 18 defendants remain in the RICO case involving Derry Richardson, the former maintenance director for Floyd County Schools.

Lawyers for several of the defendants told Floyd County Superior Court Judge Walter Matthews on Thursday the accusations in the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act filing are too vague. They asked for them to be thrown out or at least reworded to be more specific.

“When you have such a broad swath of defendants with differing allegations … (the court) should require a little bit better knowledge for a defendant to know what they are accused of,” said Albert Palmour, the attorney for Richardson Enterprises LLC, Open Road Hot Shots LLC, and several members of the Richardson family.

Prosecutors allege Richardson and others used fraudulent and inflated Floyd County Schools purchase orders to buy personal items such as Viking kitchen appliances.

According to a police affidavit, Richardson told authorities he began stealing from the school system in 2007. The initial RICO complaint states some $600,000 was taken.

No criminal charges have been filed.

The lawyer for Kadima Inc., a Buford-based company specializing in asbestos abatement, presented a similar argument. He said they don’t know how to respond because they don’t know exactly what they’re accused of.

“There are no facts indicating what the theft is that Kadima is supposedly involved in,” Charles Murphy said. “We are never told the who, what, when, where or why of the fraudulent activity.”

The appointed prosecutor, Michael Lambros, said the defendants are being sued because of a series of thefts they were all involved in.

“It’s not fraud, it’s theft,” Lambros told the judge. “Collectively, all of the defendants are involved as participants.”

Lambros presented a number of checks for large amounts of money that were paid to defendants by other defendants in the case.

Matthews did not make a ruling in regard to the defendants’ arguments, but said he would take them under advisement.

Another option, Matthews proposed, is to open up the pre-trial discovery process right away, so lawyers can begin to obtain evidence from other parties.

None of the attorneys in the courtroom indicated they thought this was the time to proceed to that next step.