RICO hearing put off after courthouse quarantines
Hearings in a racketeering case involving several former Floyd County school system employees will be pushed back again after an emergency two-week closure to halt the spread of COVID-19 in the courthouse.
The hearings were set to begin in front of Superior Court Judge Jack Niedrach on Friday but have been put off and not yet been rescheduled, according to Court Administrator Phil Hart.
The courthouse is slated to reopen
Monday, June 22, at 8 a.m. Social distancing will be enforced and a mask required for entry.
The pending hearings involve 13 defendants who are accused of collectively defrauding the school system of over $6 million over a period of years.
According to the indictment, Derry Richardson used his position as maintenance director of the school system to create inflated, and in some cases completely fraudulent, invoices for both construction and maintenance projects.
He is accused of conspiring with the other defendants — which include his family and wife — to defraud the school system.
Richardson as well as Harry Bailey, Russell Burkhalter, David English, Rodney Holder, Dwayne Richardson, Jimmy Richardson, Lisa Richardson, Charles Sherman, Samuel Tucker, Robert Watson, Samuel Sprewell and David Fielder face RICO charges.
Several of the defendants also face theft by taking or bribery charges. While a majority of those accused were arrested in 2016, the criminal case only began to move forward in 2018 after a civil case was finalized.