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Bribery, cronyism alleged as trial opens
By JEFF TESTERMAN © St. Petersburg Times, published February 7, 2001 TAMPA -- Seven years ago, after his housing authority won several national awards for innovation, Audley Evans traveled the country at the behest of HUD Secretary Jack Kemp to show other agencies how it was done in Tampa. Tuesday, Evans sat in a Tampa courtroom, his legacy in shambles. The executive director of the Tampa Housing Authority from 1988 to 1996, Evans stands accused of masterminding a bribery scandal involving the misappropriation of $4.5-million in government funds. In opening statements Tuesday morning, a government prosecutor described Evans as the official who steered fat contracts to cronies, including a felon, then raked in kickbacks in cash, dinners, mortgage payments, loans and construction work on his own investment properties. "It's a case of fraud, conspiracy, bribery, gratuities and false statements," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill. The investigation into Evans, a 48-year-old native of Jamaica, began in 1998 with an audit by HUD's Inspector General. Auditors blasted the Tampa Housing Authority for bidding abuses, the deplorable condition of Tampa's public housing and Evans' establishment of non-profit companies used to siphon off $1.8-million in authority funds. Evans was named in a 125-count indictment last April along with Dr. Patrick Watson, 43, a Tampa physician who has done medical missionary work in Central America and Vietnam, and C. Hayward Chapman, 64, a local developer. Watson and Chapman are accused of paying kickbacks to Evans in return for lucrative housing authority contracts. In opening statements Tuesday, defense attorneys tried to paint the three defendants as honest businessmen done in partly by crooked government witnesses. Arnold Levine, Evans' attorney, took aim at the credibility of two key witnesses, former housing authority planning director Angelo DePaul and Orlando contractor Bill Williams Jr. DePaul has a plea agreement with the government that is under seal, Levine said, yet he told the defense team last week that he has no such deal. Williams also has a deal with prosecutors. He has pleaded guilty to paying Evans more than $50,000 in bribes in return for a recommendation for leniency. Williams turned on Evans after being fired in 1996, telling him, "Foreigners don't understand the plight of American black males; this is a lynching," Levine said. David Maney, Watson's attorney, said his client had known Evans since attending high school with him in Jamaica. The workers' compensation physician for the Tampa Housing Authority, Watson met resident contractor Al Tomlinson and used his own development company, The Yard Group, to put together a joint venture to bid on housing authority contracts. The so-called bribes paid to Evans, Waney said, were really loans made to an old friend in Jamaica. Frank Winkles, Chapman's attorney, said failing health drove his client to set up two companies for his children: Bradley and Bradley, where professional wrestler and son-in-law Steve Keirn was a principal, and Concorde Inc., where daughter Terry Keirn was sole shareholder. The two firms obtained several contracts with the housing authority and a non-profit company Evans set up called Meridian River Development. Later, Chapman would buy into an Evans company called Caribbean Properties and pledge a certificate of deposit enabling Evans to get a $50,000 bank loan. These weren't bribes, Winkles said. "These were fair, legitimate, honest business decisions."
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