Gary Johnson talks with his lawyer before his arraignment on June 2, 2011. File photo by Rachel Anne Seymour/Bigheart Times
Tulsa County District Court Judge Tom Gillert on Thursday ordered former Skiatook School’s supplier Rick Enos to pay 64 percent of the $657,000 restitution that the state figured he and former Superintendent Gary Johnson bilked the district.
Johnson, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Enos, will pay 36 percent of the total over the next 15 years.
Enos and his attorney Scott Keith argued last Thursday that the state’s restitution amount did not include overhead, commission and other business expenditures, and should therefore be set at $475,000.
Gillert described the state’s requested restitution as an “extremely fair number.”
He also acknowledged that Johnson’s portion will be “substantially more than he received during the scheme,” but that he was the public official in the case and therefore had a greater responsibility to Skiatook schools than Enos.
Enos has 10 years to pay his share at the rate of $12,000 a month, which he will pay to the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office, which in turn will turn the money directly over to the Skiatook school district.
Enos has less time to pay back more money than Johnson in order “to get as much money as possible to Skiatook as quickly as possible,” and not to “go easy on Mr. Enos,” Gillert said.
Johnson will pay $3,000 a month that will be handled in the same fashion during a 15-year period.
By the end of this month, Johnson is to make an initial lump sum payment of $20,000 and Enos one of $60,000.
Neither man will spend time in jail provided he abides by the terms of suspended sentences.
Johnson, as superintendent, admitted to accepting four $10,000 bribes from Enos, a middleman supplier of janitorial and security products that were sold to Skiatook schools between 2004 and 2009 at mark-ups the state auditor’s office estimated approached 1,700 percent in the most extreme cases.
“Hopefully, the taxpayers in Skiatook understand this has been a high priority for the DA,” Harris said.
Enos has 10 days to appeal or ask for a review of the sentencing.
Enos and Johnson face a annual review beginning the morning of Mon., July 13, 2013.
“I usually avoid this. I’m a judge not a preacher,” Gillert said from the bench. “We have worse crimes – but we don’t have any more shameful than this.”
The Bigheart Times is a weekly newspaper based out of Barnsdall, Okla. We cover the great Osage County, home to the Osage Nation, rural communities, and many cowboys and ranchers. As one of the largest and still growing publications in Osage County our goal is to provide fair and accurate information to the public as quickly as possible.
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