Last July, following the indictment of Beaumont Independent School District electrician Calvin Walker, then-Jefferson County District Attorney Cory Crenshaw told 12News it was the the first of what promised to be a long list of BISD indictments.
Crenshaw indicated that by the end of 2014, there would be several dozen if not hundreds of criminal charges. Six months later, Southeast Texas are still waiting.
Donna Forgas has spent years looking into BISD finances. She's not an investigator, she's just a concerned mom, and grandmother who began getting suspicious of how the district was spending taxpayer dollars, especially after voters approved a $389 million bond package in 2007.
So Forgas began collecting and inspecting documents like check registers and invoices, and eventually her work made it to the Texas Education Agency.
She said, "I Fed Exed a huge box."
Forgas felt validated when the TEA came in and took over the district, citing many of her same concerns. Around the same time, law enforcement was getting involved too.
But Forgas and the community are still waiting.
The Jefferson County Grand Jury did indict BISD electrician Calvin Walker and former Purchasing Agent Naomi Lawrence-Lee, and federal prosecutors have gotten five convictions of BISD employees for fraud. However, that's less than taxpayers anticipated.
Two weeks ago, U.S. Attorney Malcolm Bales said he feels the public's pain. He said, "I'm not going to identify who we're working on, but stay tuned, we're not done yet. I'm as impatient as the people are, but to do this work is challenging, and we're going to do it the right way."
Bob Wortham just became district attorney in January, but unlike his predecessor, he's not talking about the BISD investigation. Wortham said, "I don't talk about future prosecutions, it's not fair to either side. I'd rather try my cases in the courtroom, not on the TV."
Wortham did say he's making white collar prosecution a priority even handling the cases himself, but both he and Bales say the BISD issue did not happen overnight and resolving it will take time.
He said, "It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of detail, it takes a lot of dotting the i's and crossing the t's to get to where you need to be."
And while she's anxious for justice, Forgas said she's willing to wait as long as things are done right. She said, "When they go to trial, I want them to be able to convict these people." Woodrow Reece, one of the BISD trustees removed by the state takeover, told us the indictment threats by the district attorney's office last year cast a cloud over everything the board of trustees tried to do. He says the DA took away all the trustees' functions.
He called it an intimidation tactic. Reece said, "It scared a lot of folks, both black and white, and they did not prove nothing. " Reece said to his knowledge, all the bond money was well spent and accounted for on new schools, the stadium and fees for the project manager, Parsons.
Bales did tell us to expect more news about what the joint task force is working on involving BISD probably this month.
