(hattiesburgamerican.com) NEW ORLEANS – A former New Orleans school board president who ran as a corruption fighter pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking more than $100,000 in bribes to help an unidentified businessman win school contracts for his employer.
Ellenese Brooks-Simms, 67, was charged Wednesday in a federal bill of information with conspiracy to commit bribery. She pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Lance Africk.
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“She fully acknowledges and regrets being involved in this,†her attorney, Ralph Capitelli, told reporters outside the federal courthouse. He would not discuss details of the case.
The charges against Brooks-Simms do not name the business consultant accused of paying her to win school board contracts for his employer.
The bill charges that Brooks-Simms, on three different occasions, took thousands of dollars for “promoting and approving†school board contracts that “illegally benefited the person known to the United States Attorney.â€
The contracts were with Jackson, Miss.-based JRL Enterprises Inc., which was not accused of wrongdoing. The company was founded in New Orleans, but moved to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. The payments totaled $140,000.
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Brooks-Simms served on the Orleans Parish School Board from 2000 to 2004. She is the latest person to plead guilty in a wide-ranging probe of the Orleans Parish School Board that began in 2003. The probe so far has resulted in 23 guilty pleas…(more…)
