By Lee Cary ——Bio and Archives--August 11, 2018
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“Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway will plead guilty to federal corruption charges, according to documents filed in Dallas federal court Thursday morning. Caraway will admit to accepting $450,000 in bribes and kickbacks from two key figures in the scandal that brought down bus agency Dallas County Schools: Bob Leonard, who owned the stop-arm camera company that took millions from DCS; and Slater Swartwood Sr., an associate of Leonard's.” “The longtime council member from Oak Cliff admits that the $390,000 he took from Leonard for ‘real estate consulting’ was ‘excessive.’ Court documents show that "Caraway knew that some of the money was to secure his political influence due to his position" as a council member.”Last year, the Canada Free Press posted a 9-part series – linked below – that chronicled the successful effort of the Dallas City Council to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a Dallas park. An even larger Confederate monument in downtown Dallas awaits removal. According to Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Caraway faces a maximum sentence of 7 years, or 84 months in prison and a fine of $69,000 in restitution to the IRS. Caraway, the second most powerful politician in Dallas, was part of a conspiracy that included Robert Leonard, “president and owner of DCS [Dallas County Schools] camera supplier Force Multiplier Solutions,” who paid more than $3.5 million in bribes and kickbacks to former DCS Superintendent Rick Sorrells and Caraway. In April, Sorrells pleaded guilty to accepting more than $3 million in bribes and kickbacks related to approving $70 million in camera contracts and an associate of Leonard's, Slater Swartwood, has admitted to helping accommodate those bribes.”
"As the nation grapples with what to do with the vestiges of the Confederacy, so does Dallas. It is a necessary conversation that has been brewing for many years. With that said, I support the effort to research the proper policy on removing statues, and to survey the thoughts of City Officials on what the process, if any, should look like. This is not the decision of one person. In the meantime, my focus will be on the residents of Dallas and their immediate needs. I choose to focus on making our neighborhoods safer by combatting the scourge of drugs in our communities. I choose to focus on combatting homelessness and making sure the most vulnerable of us all have a safe place to lay their head at night. And, I choose to work on bringing economic development to Southern Dallas, and finding equitable ways to provide a better quality of life for many who need only the opportunity."In retrospect, it seems as though Caraway was focused not on the needs of Dallas residents, not on Dallas neighborhood fighting drug use, not on the plight of the homeless, nor even on the economic development in South Dallas. But he was focused on displacing the statue of Robert E. Lee and lining his own pockets. And, of course, finding creative funding to buy campaign busses.
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