Two former environmental inspectors for the District of Columbia were sentenced to a year behind bars each for demanding bribes in a federal sting. Joe L. Parrish, 52, and Gregory Scott, 60, both former inspectors in the District’s Department of Environment, accepted $20,000 in payments to overlook problems with the removal of asbestos from an apartment on the Southwest waterfront, authorities said.
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The shakedown was recorded on audio and video tape, prosecutors said. Both men pleaded guilty in March to one count of solicitation and receipt of a bribe by a public official.
“When government officials treat their responsibility to the public as a commodity to be bought and sold, we are all put at risk,” U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr. said. “These corrupt inspectors were willing to sell out their obligation to protect the public from cancer-causing materials in exchange for cash bribes.”
Parrish and Scott were the District government’s only licensed asbestos inspectors, and their conduct has seriously impaired the city’s ability to conduct routine inspections of asbestos removal projects, according to a statement by Cecily Beall of the DDOE.
Parrish and Scott’s actions “continue to put District residents and the environment in danger,” Beall wrote in a letter dated Monday.
According to charging documents, on Aug. 16, 2011, Scott inspected a demolition project of a 10-story apartment building, known as Channel Square, on the 300 block of P Street SW, and told a construction manager that it contained serious violations in removal and transportation of hazardous asbestos material.
On Aug. 23, 2011, just minutes after an earthquake hit the District and the mid-Atlantic region, Scott returned to the building with Parrish, his supervisor.
The duo didn’t let the earthquake shake them from the scheme.
Parrish demanded payment from a management company official, who was also a cooperating witness for the government.
The inspectors detailed the infractions that had been uncovered at the building, and explained that the company was facing $360,000 in fines and violators were facing jail time for breaking criminal environmental laws, according to documents.
The inspectors said they were willing to “help” the management company, court documents said, but they needed to be “compensated” for their efforts.
They’d also said they already had prepared a written report to begin the proceedings for the fines, but they were willing to “burn” it and not report the infractions, documents said.
The cooperating witness paid each man a bribe of $2,500 using money provided by the FBI. Parrish counted the money, and the men agreed they wouldn’t file their report, documents said.
During the final meeting, the cooperating witness paid Parrish and Scott an additional $15,000, and the two inspectors were then arrested.
