8K pages of documents in Warnock case released

8K pages of documents in Warnock case released

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Federal prosecutors have more than 8,000 pages of documents and nearly a dozen computer discs containing various electronic recordings and other documents in the criminal case against former Madison County Engineer Rudy Warnock, according to a discovery motion filed in federal court last week. 

Warnock, who has been charged with bribery and wire fraud that allegedly occurred during his brief stint at Canton Municipal Utilities after he was fired by the county, is scheduled to go to trial on June 5. 

Back in March, Warnock switched his counsel, moving from a three-man team to Jackson criminal defense attorney John Colette and Thomas J. Spina of Alabama. 

The new attorneys filed a motion for full discovery on March 23, asking the prosecution to submit the names and addresses of everyone who has given statements to prosecutors or law enforcement officers, including confidential informants. 

“Defendant specifically requests information concerning the identity of any confidential informants involved in this case, along with a criminal history report for each confidential informant including ALL prior criminal convictions,” the motion states.

In addition, the motion asks for other information, ranging from criminal records of potential witnesses to psychiatric records. 

The government responded last Tuesday calling the motion moot and saying they have delivered all relevant material to Warnock’s attorneys. 

“The government believes this Motion is moot and was only filed to satisfy the requirement that (Warnock) request discovery rather than elicit any particular piece of evidence that (Warnock) believes has not been turned over in discovery. 

“(Warnock) was arraigned on November 30, 2022, and the Order Regarding Discovery…was filed that same day,” the motion continues. “At the initial appearance and arraignment proceedings, the Government produced an initial discovery disclosure of 326 stamped pages of reports and other documents. On December 20, 2022, the Government supplemented discovery with approximately 8,000 stamped pages (of) additional reports and other documents.”

The motion continues, “Beginning on January 3, 2023 and continuing through February 21, 2023, the Government produced ten discs containing various electronic recordings, documents, records, and reports.”

Following Warnock’s appointment of new counsel in March, an 11th disc “containing digital copies of approximately 80 stamped pages of records,” was given to counsel, the motion states. 

As of Wednesday morning, the court hadn’t responded to the government’s response. 

Warnock remains the only person implicated in the case who hasn’t pleaded guilty after indictments were unsealed in November 2022. 

Former Canton Municipal Utilities Chairman Cleveland Anderson and former Canton aldermen Andrew Grant and Eric Gilkey have all pleaded guilty to bribery charges stemming from Warnock’s one-year stint at CMU from 2016 to 2017. 

Their sentencing hearings, originally scheduled for May 24, have also been continued to a later date, presumably until Warnock’s trial is completed.

Warnock was indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Warnock was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2021, but the indictments were sealed until November 2022. Warnock pleaded not guilty at his initial appearance. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. 

Grant, Anderson and Gilkey are all facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

“According to court documents, Warnock is charged with having directed payments and rewards to Anderson, Gilkey and Grant in exchange for preferential treatment that resulted in lucrative city engineering contracts for Warnock,” a November 2022 press release from the Justice Department said. “The ‘gratuities’ supplied by Warnock included thousands of dollars in cash, concert tickets, and football tickets in New Orleans.”

According to the indictment, around Dec. 23, 2016, a check in the amount of $9,200 made payable to a J.M. was deposited and cleared an automated clearinghouse of the Federal Reserve Bank and both Gilkey and Grant were paid $4,000 each. 

Warnock was ousted as engineer for Madison County with the seating of three new county supervisors at the beginning of 2016.

Some of the new supervisors had campaigned on cleaning up county government, including the removal of Warnock after a Madison County Journal investigative series revealed he was paid $1.2 million for an airport feasibility study for the Madison County Economic Development Authority. 

Eight months after Warnock’s removal from the county position, he was hired to become the exclusive engineer for CMU and within four months had billed the municipal utility $1.15 million for work.

Warnock’s tenure at CMU was rife with controversy from the beginning when the ousted chairman of the CMU board, Silbrina Wright, who had alleged corruption from the get-go.  

Two months after Warnock’s hire, the CMU board ousted the general manager and increased the overall operating budget by $540,000 to nearly $13 million. At that point, Warnock then declared a sewer emergency and the board was discussing the possibility of floating a bond and borrowing upwards of $30 million to $40 million to address sewer needs in the city. 

Warnock was later fired in 2016 and it was at that point Warnock alleged in a lawsuit that Anderson had offered to kill Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and Madison County Journal Associate Publisher Michael Simmons for $10,000 using a New Orleans hitman. No criminal charges were ever filed. 

Warnock later sued CMU for $6.3 million. That lawsuit was eventually dismissed by a federal judge. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story erroneaously stated that Warnock was fired from the county shortly after the check was cashed in December 2016. Warnock was replaced in January 2016. 






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