When a school district employee stole money from a government fund, prosecutors say, the cash flowed to his family’s Summerville, Ga., businesses.
Last month, Rome Judicial Circuit District Attorney Leigh Patterson filed a racketeering complaint against former Floyd County Schools Director of Maintenance Derry Scott Richardson, saying investigators learned that Richardson and unnamed co-conspirators defrauded the school system of more than $600,000.
On Tuesday, Patterson added a list of people who he said benefited from the “theft ring,” including Richardson’s wife, his parents, his brother and his sister-in-law. Patterson also included five family businesses: DSR Properties, Henderson Real Estate, Summerville Building and Supply, Richardson Enterprises of Georgia and Open Road Hot Shots, a trucking company.
“The defendants … engaged in and committed at least two or more acts of racketeering activity,” Patterson wrote in a Floyd County Superior Court filing. “The relationship between the defendants [in Floyd County] and others constitutes an ‘enterprise.'”
Derry Richardson’s attorney, Bobby Lee Cook, did not return calls seeking comment Thursday. A woman answering the phone at Richardson’s parents’ house hung up when a reporter identified himself. And Richardson’s brother, Dwayne, said he could not comment or give the Times Free Press the name of his attorney until next week.