Crime pays in MCPS
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Anonymous
| I love the corruption sympathizers; the are so full of bull and they can't stand teachers. We are messed with no matter right or wrong. Thanks mcps. There is no end to your corruption. |
Anonymous
When did MCPS buy classroom supplies? |
Anonymous
It means what it says. If you don't like the Washington Post, you can read other articles, for example this https://www.mymcmedia.org/former-school-director-of-transportation-pleads-guilty-to-misconduct-in-office/ or this https://moco360.media/2022/12/16/report-employees-of-mcps-department-of-transportation-abused-purchase-cards/ or this https://moco360.media/2023/05/19/former-school-dot-official-charles-ewald-pleads-guilty-to-embezzlement/ |
Anonymous
End of story? How are you so naive. This really is outrageous. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were stollen from MCPS due to his unethical and illegal scheme specifically conceived by him to divert the procedures put in place to prevent this. He set up an off the books account instead of paying MCPS. When he was in charge of running the department!! This is 100% corrupt to allow him out of criminal charges to save face for MCPS. Now they can go with “it was a rouge employee stealing” instead of placing blame where is should be, with Watkins. Pathetic. |
Anonymous
You can discuss this with the county state's attorney, John McCarthy, who makes the charging decisions. It's not a decision made by MCPS. John McCarthy holds elective office. If you want to argue about his charging decisions, do it on the Metropolitan Politics forum. |
Anonymous
State's Attorney information showed that Watkins arranged with Steve Leonard, the president of American Truck & Bus, to keep late fees and change fee reimbursements rather than returning that money to the school system. Watkins arranged an 'off the books' system with the bus company, and the vendor kept a record of money owed to the school system. The company deducted those amounts from its payments from the school system; Watkins received about $13,000 from those payments. The former director provided documentation of those payments and is not charged with theft. But beginning in 2016, Ewald requested the company to disburse money from the 'off the books' system to him and other employees. About $369,000 in payments was made to employees through the 'off the books' system, and about $353,000 of those payments went to Ewald. Watkins's failure to monitor how funds were used through the 'off the books' system caused "Ewald to personally enrich himself by stealing money belonging to MCPS," according to court documents. Records also note that Watkins said in a statement to investigators that the 'off the books' system was not an approved procedure and 'suggested it was easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission.' Summary: Ewald stole money, enabled by Watkins's mishandling (but not stealing) of money. |
Anonymous
I guess if you decide that something that isn't a crime is "crime". |
Anonymous
Watkins was paid $13,000 under the table for setting up a scam that ripped off mcps for over a million dollars. That is how much was in the off the books account. Watkins gets his retirement and no jail time. Watkins didn’t steal tge money. He was paid fir services rendered. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
Start reading. Those are THE facts. |
Anonymous
They are the facts you made up in your head. Maybe you should run for county state's attorney, then you could make the charging decisions. |
Anonymous
If that were true, someone would be charged with a crime, but there wasn't one. Stop inventing nonsense. |
Anonymous
Sorry hon. This is Montgomery County. No charges for stealing $1.2M from MCPS. McKnight doesn't want that bad publicity. That would be front page of the Washington Post. Make the crime misconduct in office and bury the story in the Metro section is the best for the optics. OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE AUDITS DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATIVE SERVICES MARYLAND GENERAL ASSEMBLY Financial Management Practices Audit Report Montgomery County Public Schools September 2022 In February 2022, the firm issued a report which identified that approximately $1.2 million had been deposited in the account and that payments totaling approximately $649,000 were made either directly to MCPS employees or for purchases of goods and services purportedly on behalf of MCPS during the period from October 2017 to November 2021. As of November 16, 2021, the account had a balance totaling $535,036. The firm also reviewed MCPS credit card purchases during the period July 2016 to January 2022 and identified purchases totaling approximately $572,000 made by transportation department employees that were considered questionable or required additional review. The firm stated in the report that additional work would be necessary to fully investigate the aforementioned activity. https://www.ola.state.md.us/Search/Report?keyword=&agencyId=&dateFrom=&dateTo= |
Anonymous
What are you talking about? There were charges. Specifically, felony theft (for one of them) and misdemeanor misconduct in office (for both of them). Both of them pled guilty. |
Anonymous
| Sounds par for the course teachers working 80 hrs per week get bullied and pressured to do all kinds of bs then fired for doing our job well and reporting crime. Criminals get a slap on the wrist for riping off our public institutions. Par for the course I guess. |