The superintendent of DeKalb County Schools, Crawford Lewis, has recently become the center of a frenzy of negative media attention. Now, after several accumulating events, Lewis’s Stone Mountain’s home was raided by police, and potential evidence was seized resulting in another public outrage against Lewis.
On Thursday, February 25, investigators armed with a search warrant searched the superintendent’s house and his private office. No concrete reason for the search has been released yet, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the investigators were looking for evidence on Louis’s personal financial records as well as for documents that linked him to Tony Pope, the husband of Pat Pope, the former Chief Operating Officer of the school system. This raid was part of an ongoing investigation into multi-million-dollar school concentration projects. The Popes are suspects in this investigation and have also had both of their homes and offices raided. Two other businessmen, David Moody and Bruno Barnes, are also linked to the investigation. Recent evidence linked Lewis to these four suspects, which resulted in the police investigation and search of his house and offices.
“To me, it’s very unfortunate for this kind of thing to happen at the top,” said Chamblee High School German teacher Rosemarie Kelly. “He is an example to the youth of our county and I find it troubling.”
The investigation is centered on various crimes including racketeering, bid-rigging, mail fraud, wire fraud, theft by taking, theft by deception, false writings, and false swearing. Pat Pope, as the chief operating officer at the time, has been accused of manipulating the system by giving Tony Pope, Moody, and Barnes projects to work on, and therefore, money. Lewis has somehow become linked to this investigation and his records are now being seized as well.
Lewis has taken administrative leave since the investigation began. Although he is no longer attending work, the county continues to pay him his regular salary. Taxpayers are also being forced to pay all of your anticipated legal bills that will come as a result of this investigation. Another Chamblee teacher who wished to remain anonymous shared the same views as Kelly.
“The timing of this definitely raises some eyebrows. We are in the middle of the biggest budget cut in DeKalb County. He’s definitely sending the wrong message.”
Last month, the Blue & Gold was granted an exclusive interview with Lewis about his recent budget raise. All questions asked were answered with detail by Lewis, but the students now ponder how honest he truly was.
“After interviewing him that day, I understood where he was coming from,” said Amy Wong, Blue & Gold feature editor. “I think the media has been picking on him. I definitely go by ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ so my view of him won’t change until some substantial evidence against him comes out of this recent investigation.”