May 27, 2015
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
The School District of Philadelphia headquarters on North Broad Street.
Calling her the "ring leader" in a scheme to steer a $900,000 moving contract to family and friends, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced criminal charges Wednesday against a Philadelphia school district official.
Priscilla Wright, 50, is charged with conflict of interest and perjury for allegedly using her position as manager of small business development to ensure a vendor and related subcontractors — all friends and family — were paid with public funding.
“Wright used her employment at the School District of Philadelphia to not only position herself as the ‘ringleader,’ but she steered a lucrative contract to her friends and family and stayed involved with the contract to make sure that everyone she wanted got paid as schools closed across the city,” Williams said in a statement. “Ms. Wright and her family are a perfect example of why we need to never stop reviewing and overseeing how the public’s money is spent, because once we remove the checks and balances, the fox all too often raids the henhouse.”
Wright, who resigned, was arrested Wednesday after turning herself into authorities.
The district issued a Request for Quotation in March 2013 to find vendors to transport property to other locations when it was closing 23 schools,.
Shortly before the bid deadline, Wright allegedly placed a call to Murphy's Transporting Services, a business that previously had done work for the district and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, telling them to apply for the work. She then purportedly assembled a team of family and friends who operated under Murphy's name, enabling her the ability to steer public funding to them.
Wright's family members were placed in positions of profit and control, according to the District Attorney's Office. Some allegedly were placed in administrative roles while others were inserted directly into a profit sharing agreement.
That team allegedly included her son John Nelson Brown, sister Laverne Rodney, sister Veronica Wright, daughter Brittany Davis and nephew Gregory Wright. Two others, Kia Steave and Angel Hackney, allegedly acted as agents for Wright.
Asked whether Wright's family and friends also are facing charges, a spokesman for the DA's Office said the grand jury investigation is ongoing.
Wright denied any wrongdoing before the grand jury, which found her claims to be demonstrably false, prosecutors said.
