Gerlma Johnson/Earhart Elementary/Middle School photo
Gerlma Johnson/Earhart Elementary/Middle School photo
It's hard to feel much sympathy for ex-Detroit Principal Gerlma Johnson considering that she's charged with being part of a kickback scheme that cost the impoverished Detroit Public Schools millions of dollars.
Johnson, 56, wiped away tears during her initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Detroit on the corruption charges before an old friend, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Stafford Holly Fournier and Jennifer Chambers of The Detroit News. The two had served on a local group's board last decade.
“I’d like to place on the record that Ms. Johnson is an old friend of mine,” Stafford said, according to The News. Both sides did not object to her conducting the hearing. Either side could have on the grounds of a potential conflict of interest.
Johnson, a former principal at the Drew Academy and Earhart Elementary-Middle School, is one of 12 principals and a school administrator charged in a kickback scheme that ran from 2002 to January 2015. She is accused of accepting $22,884 in kickbacks from a vendor from Franklin, Norman Shy, who billed the school district for items like auditorium chairs, supplemental teaching materials and raised line paper that were never delivered.
In all, Shy, 74, allegedly paid to the 13 school officials about $908,518 in kickbacks and bribes. In exchange, Shy and his company received approximately $2.7 million from the school system for the fraudulent invoices. Shy has reportedly reached a plea agreement.
“It’s a sad day,” Johnson's attorney, Randall Upshaw, said Tuesday.
