It's been said that white collar crime isn't as serious as violent crime because white collar criminals don't hurt anybody. That's like saying nobody gets hurt when a church poor box is robbed. Of course people are hurt - and it's the most vulnerable and needy who'll have to go without, or do with less.
We were reminded of this Thursday when U.S. District Court Judge Dudley Bowen sentenced former state Rep. Robin Williams, R-Augusta, to a well-deserved decade-long prison term for spearheading the multi-layered conspiracy to loot the former Community Mental Health Center of East Central Georgia of more than $2 million. The prison term was at the mid-range of the guidelines urged for such crimes. Williams and his co-conspirators were also ordered to pay millions in restitution.
The mental health center was the region's principle facility for aiding our society's most helpless people, including the poor and low-income mentally ill, emotionally disabled, and addicted. The $2 million-plus that would have been spent to help them instead flowed into the pockets of high-living Williams and his accomplices who also got what they deserved from Judge Bowen:
Michael Brockman, who ran the center until his corruption was exposed, was sentenced to six years; pharmacist Duncan Fordham, four years and four months; Rick L. Camp, lobbyist and former Atlanta Braves pitcher, three years and one month; and M. Chad Long, grandson of former House Speaker Tom Murphy, two years and nine months.
These crooks not only stole from the poor and vulnerable to enrich themselves, they were also bullies who used their power and clout to discredit and scare off the courageous whistle-blowers who brought their corruption to public attention via a series of Augusta Chronicle articles starting in early 2003.
Phyllis Holliday was told she was "stupid" and to "sit down and shut up" when she raised questions at public meetings about the strange goings-on at the center. When she refused to hush up, Holliday and the National Mental Health Association of Augusta that she heads got slapped with a whopping $10.2 million lawsuit. Now that's intimidation, big time.
Sharon Haire, a high-level employee at the mental health center, got fired after she wrote a letter exposing Brockman's corrupt management. Another whistle-blower, M.J. Shirey, past president of the Augusta Alliance for the Mentally Ill, was rudely blown off when she tried to alert the center's governing board to inexplicable service cuts.
"Their attitude was how dare I question them," she said. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. It's remarkable the mental health facility persevered at all. It has since changed its name to Serenity Behavioral Health Systems.
These three women, and others who helped them out, are real heroes for standing up to the white-collar bullies. They weren't physically abused, but their careers and reputations took an awful beating for awhile.
Williams' role in the ugly scheme was especially contemptible, not only because he was the ringleader but also because he used his position and contacts as a state lawmaker to get the ball rolling.
In addition to his other crimes - he was convicted on 17 counts, including theft, fraud and money-laundering - Williams violated his public trust as an elected official. How could a man who once did a lot of good for his community, and seemed to have a bright political future, sink so low? Or was he always a scoundrel?
Even after sentencing, the lawmaker turned lawbreaker still didn't accept full responsibility for his crimes - only that "Mistakes were made. I admitted to that."
Judge Bowen had a different take. "There were no mistakes in all of this. All of these men willfully, intentionally and voluntarily participated."
Indeed they did. We feel for their families who do not deserve the pain they feel. They are also victims of white collar crime - you know, the kind of crime in which nobody really gets hurt.
