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Feds indict leaders in scheme

Two Housing Authority officials are accused of stealing funds intended to refurbish apartments.

By DAN DEWITT
Published November 8, 2006

BROOKSVILLE — Two longtime Brooksville Housing Authority employees face federal indictments charging them with stealing money intended to refurbish apartments for low-income residents.

Betty Trent, the authority’s executive director, and Joe  Anne Bennett, the recently retired project manager, have each been accused of crimes including conspiracy, mail fraud and theft of public money. Bennett also has been charged with falsifying investigative records.

According to the indictment, they each owe the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development $40,650 in funds they are accused of stealing. They appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday and are both free on $25,000 bond. If convicted, Bennett and Trent each could be sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

Trent was on vacation this week, and the Housing Authority’s board of directors has not decided whether to suspend her or take any other disciplinary action, said board member Carl Pilcher.

“An indictment is not guilt. It’s an accusation,’’ Pilcher said.

The indictment states that Trent and Bennett used “an intermediary to make it appear that the intermediary was paid for services rendered,’’ though no work was performed.

The indictment does not name any of the individuals or companies that were contracted but does say the payments were made between December 2001 and May 2003.

That was shortly after the authority received a $470,000 grant from the HUD to renovate the two apartment complexes in south Brooksville the authority manages, Hillside Estates and Summit Villas.

A 2002 audit of the authority found misuse of those funds, including thousands of dollars that Trent and Bennett paid themselves for extra work with little or no documentation it had been completed. The audit also found the authority paid $20,000 to Bennett that she later said was loan.

In interviews with the St. Petersburg Times in October 2002, former Housing Authority employees described practices similar to those outlined in the indictment.

Bennett and Trent, the employees said, hired unlicensed companies that were owned by friends or relatives to paint apartments, install new wiring and replace aluminum gutters.

Betty Trent’s son, Larry Trent, the maintenance supervisor, and other authority employees performed most of the contracted work. One of the former employees, Dan Smith, said he suspected that the Trents and Bennett paid a small amount of money to the contractors, then split the rest among them.

The indictment does not specify how the funds were distributed. Bennett could not be reached for comment Tuesday; a man who answered the phone at Trent’s house said she had no comment.

Larry Trent previously told the Times that he completed the contracted work — including the rewiring of apartments — to impress a consultant named Paul Tanner, who advised the authority on how to manage the renovation grant.
Betty Trent and Bennett also said Tanner approved their handling of the grant money. Tanner disputed that, saying Betty Trent bore responsibility for screening the contractors.

Officials from HUD have also found fault with Trent and Bennett, labeling the Housing Authority as “troubled’’ in November 2002 and taking over its authority to spend the grant money.

The department’s Office of Inspector General also worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the investigation that led to the charges.

A federal grand jury handed down the indictment last week and it was unsealed Monday, said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.

On Tuesday, HUD spokeswoman Donna White said the department “is very concerned about these indictments and we will be in communication with the (Housing Authority) board.’’

But Pilcher and several other members said it was too early to place blame on Trent or Bennett. He repeated what the two have long contended: that they followed Tanner’s advice on how to handle the grant money.

The audit, which found several irregularities, including the loan to Bennett, “was not a bad audit,’’ Pilcher said.
“Other than the loan, which was a stupid, stupid thing, there was nothing wrong,’’ he said. “Certainly nothing criminal.’’

- Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6116.

[Last modified November 8, 2006, 08:13:38]