Former Director of Detroit Office of Departmental Technology Services Pleads Guilty to Bribery

Get em.

The former director of the city of Detroit’s Office of Departmental Technology Services (DTS) pleaded guilty today for accepting more than $29,500 in bribe payments from two information technology companies providing services and personnel to the city of Detroit.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan and Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the FBI’s Detroit Division made the announcement.

Charles L. Dodd Jr., 46, of Canton, Michigan, pleaded guilty to one count of federal program bribery before U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan.  Sentencing has been scheduled for Jan. 9, 2017.

According to admissions made in connection with today’s plea, Dodd has held numerous supervisory positions with the city of Detroit in which he exercised discretionary supervisory authority over a staff of dozens of city employees and contractors, and held substantial influence over the administration of multimillion-dollar contracts between the city of Detroit and private information technology companies.

Between 2009 and 2016, Dodd accepted cash payments totaling more than $15,000 and a trip to North Carolina, among other things of value, from an individual who was then the president and CEO of an information technology company, according to the plea agreement.  Dodd admitted that during that same time period, he also accepted more than $14,500 in cash payments from the CEO and an employee of another information technology company.  In return for these cash payments and other things of value, Dodd agreed to provide preferential treatment to the companies, he admitted.

The FBI’s Detroit Division investigated the case.  Trial Attorneys Robert J. Heberle and Nicholas Connor of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Judge of the Eastern District of Michigan are prosecuting the case.

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