Supes fire inspector following indictment

Supes fire inspector following indictment

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Madison County supervisors on Monday voted to fire Andrew Grant from his position as a county stormwater inspector following his recent guilty plea on federal bribery charges. 

Supervisors took the action in executive session in a 3-0 vote with District 4 Supervisor Karl Banks and District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffin abstaining. 

Grant, who was making $26.01 an hour with the county, is one of four people indicted on federal bribery charges related to allegations of corruption centered around former County Engineer Rudy Warnock during his brief stint as engineer for Canton Municipal Utilities in 20 and 2017. 

Grant, who served as a Canton alderman at the time, pleaded guilty two weeks ago in federal court to two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery charges, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

In 2019, Grant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit voter fraud in connection with the 2017 Canton municipal election. He received a suspended sentence of five years in that case. 

Grant, along with former Canton Alderman Eric Gilkey and former CMU Chairman Cleveland Anderson are alleged to have conspired with Warnock during 2016 and 2017 when Warnock assumed the role as engineer for CMU. According to the federal indictment, Warnock gave cash and gifts such as concert tickets and box seats to New Orleans Saints football games in exchange for lucrative contracts. 

During a four-month period at CMU, Warnock had billed over $1.15 million. 

Gilkey has also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery. Both he and Grant face up to five years in prison and are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 23, 2023.

Warnock and Anderson both pleaded not guilty in federal court last week. Anderson has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and faces up to five years in prison for each count. 

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. According to the Justice Department, Warnock faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charges and five years for each conspiracy charge if found guilty. 

The indictments has been sealed for nearly a year after a federal grand jury returned the indictments in December 2021. 

“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 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.”

The trial is set for Jan. 9, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate.






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