Former lawmaker Robin Williams will be cleared of fraud and money-laundering charges at an Augusta mental health center, his attorney predicted Thursday.
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For mental health advocates, however, the charges against Mr. Williams and four others lend weight to rumors of insider dealing that for years have dogged the Community Mental Health Center of East Central Georgia.
Atlanta attorney Bruce H. Morris said he had not seen the charges, nor did he know when Mr. Williams would be summoned to face them. But he said the deals at the center of the allegations were "legitimate contracts" that would win Mr. Williams his acquittal.
"The government has picked a fight with Robin Williams, and he accepts the challenge," Mr. Morris said. "We'll meet them in the courthouse, and he will be vindicated."
Mr. Williams was the key figure in a 30-count federal indictment charging that he conspired with the center's former Executive Director Mike Brockman, lobbyists Rick Camp and M. Chad Long, and pharmacy provider Duncan Drugs to siphon more than $2 million out of the center and funnel back more than $800,000 to Mr. Williams in kickbacks.
The charges flesh out details of contracts with vendors tied to Mr. Williams that The Augusta Chronicle has been investigating since January 2003. That's when anonymous allegations from an employee led the Augusta center's board to suspend its administrators and later call for state investigations.
"I understand that the (mental health center) was a very political place," Mr. Morris said. "And when there was a shift in control, people may have been unhappy with the existing contracts. But there is no fraud."
An official with one of those contractors, Capitol Health Systems, is apparently helping federal authorities.
Wilson Carroll, attorney for Capitol Health President Janet Mann, said his client has cooperated fully with the investigation and will continue to do so. Ms. Mann was not named in the indictment and was referenced only by her initials, "JM."
The indictment alleges that Mr. Williams was part owner of Capitol Health and that Mr. Brockman rigged the bidding so that it was awarded a $1.2 million contract to handle the center's billing in July 2002. "JM," according to the indictment, then wrote Mr. Williams 14 checks totaling more than $170,000 over the next six months.
The U.S. District Court will settle whether the contracts were legitimate, said Phil Horton, acting executive director for the center.
"But if that's true, why were we facing financial insolvency in April of last year?" Dr. Horton asked. At one point last year, the center was looking at a nearly $2 million deficit, which it solved in part by terminating hefty contracts with companies tied to Mr. Williams.
The suspicions of mental health advocates about sweetheart deals at the center was heightened in March 2001 when Mr. Williams was hired as a consultant for $30,000 for four months. Phylis Holliday, of the Mental Health Association of Greater Augusta, protested the hiring to the center's board.
"I was asking why this money was being spent for a consultant's salary instead of for direct services to the clients," she said. "We couldn't get medicine for the clients. We couldn't get transportation. They told me it was none of my business. Mike Brockman looked me straight in the face and told me that."
When she wrote about her suspicions to state legislators, the center tried to sue her for $10.2 million for libel, although it was later forced to drop the suit because it is a government agency and can't sue for libel.
The indictments Wednesday were a surprise but a welcome one, she said.
"I was shocked because I was so afraid it was being passed over and swept under the rug," she said.
"I'm relieved that action has been taken and that this will be resolved."
It was immediately clear something was amiss to Greg Peterson, performance auditor for the Department of Human Resources Office of Audits, when he was called in to look at the center's finances in 2003.
"The first couple of contracts I looked at, I said, 'These contracts weren't very well written,'" he said. "They have these incentive clauses in here that don't make sense to me. It just doesn't look right. I said, 'Why did they sign this contract?'"
Reach Tom Corwin or Sylvia Cooper at (706) 724-0851.
Former Rep. Robin Williams and four other defendants will receive a summons to appear in U.S. District Court in Augusta to face charges from a 30-count federal indictment. The notices might be mailed today or early next week.
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