Ex-Skiatook superintendent sentenced to restitution for bribery

TULSA - The Skiatook School District is close to receiving restitution from its former superintendent and an Oklahoma City businessman who pleaded guilty to bilking the district out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Former Skiatook Superintendent Dr. Gary Johnson was convicted of four counts of soliciting and accepting a bribe as a public employee.  Johnson entered guilty pleas for all four counts in July 2011.

His accomplice, vendor Rick Enos, entered a guilty plea last month.

An audit shows that over a four-and-half-year period of Johnson's leadership, the district bought more than $800,000 in janitorial supplies and security equipment from a business owned by Enos.

According to the audit, many of the items were sold to the district at prices that were inflated by by more than 200-percent.

On Friday, Johnson was given four 15-year sentences in the Department of Corrections to be served concurrently or restitution in the amount of more than $657,197, which equates to a 15-year suspended sentence. 

Johnson agreed to the restitution, but Enos and his attorney believe the amount should be far less.

His attorney argues that Enos should get credit for the industry standard on mark-up prices on those supplies as well as a commission for the service he provided.

Tulsa District Attorney Tim Harris disputes the idea.

"Mr. Enos wants to call himself a re-distributor. The state of Oklahoma does not agree with that," says Harris. "What Mr. Enos would do, is he would call someone up and order the supplies to be shipped to the Skiatook School system. Then he would make an invoice to the school at an astronomical mark up."

Harris continues, "Mr. Enos wants called himself a middle man, for the couple of minutes work it took for him to do that - to create an invoice for that to pass through. If there is some commission due to him for doing that, Judge Gillert will decide what's fair."

The notion that Enos should receive credit for his efforts angers Skiatook Resident Linda Loftis, who served on the Skiatook School Board following the scandal.

"It's very frustrating. This has gone on for two years," says Loftis. "And now he wants a commission off of what was sold? That was so exorbitant? This is talking about our kids. We thought this would be resolved today."

Enos' attorney didn't want to further explain his argument to 2NEWS after Friday's hearing. He refused to comment.

Enos will be back in court in July 13 for a hearing in which his attorney will try to get the amount of damages reduced.
    
Johnson will be back July 27 for judicial review. During that hearing, Judge Tom Gillert can sentence him to more time on the suspended sentence and order him additional damages if he deems it appropriate.

Harris says in addition to deciding what amount of finical damages are owed to Skiatok public schools, the judge can also decide what portion of the damages each defendant should pay.

"In all fairness, we are trying to use the numbers that are based in reality", says Harris. "The state of Oklahoma is relying on the state auditor's numbers, which we believe are based on actual invoices from suppliers. So we believe the number we have calculated with their help is fair."