6th Person Sent to Prison in Scheme that Brought School Bus Stop Arm Cameras to Montgomery County, MD. MCPS Fmr Dir Todd Watkins Met with Rick Sorrells in Dallas. @mcps @mocoboe

Reminder:  In 2015, MCPS former Director of Transportation Todd Watkins flew to Dallas and met with Dallas Schools Superintendent Rick Sorrells to discuss school bus stop arm cameras through the vendor Force Multiplier Solutions.  Todd Watkins signed MCPS to participate in this no bid scheme and it is still in use today.  After the company was investigated and 6 people connected to the scheme were convicted and sentenced, the company changed its name and became Bus Patrol America. 

Lawyer Sentenced to Prison for Concealing Bribes in DCS Scandal

By Scott Friedman • Published December 10, 2020 • Updated on December 10, 2020 at 3:53 pm

A federal judge in Dallas has sentenced an attorney to six months in federal prison for his role in the bribery scandal that spelled the end of Dallas County Schools, the agency that used to operate the school buses for Dallas ISD and a number of other local school districts. 

New Orleans lawyer Richard Reynolds is the sixth person to be sentenced in connection with an FBI investigation into the financial collapse of DCS, a scandal first uncovered in a months-long NBC 5 investigation.

Reynolds admitted he used his law firm to help facilitate and conceal some of the bribe payments made by school bus camera company owner Robert Leonard to Dallas County schools superintendent Rick Sorrells. Leonard and Sorrells are currently serving seven-year terms in federal prison, for their roles in the scheme which involved more than $3 million dollars in bribes and kickbacks which Sorrells spent on items including a Maserati, jewelry, and a luxury New Orleans vacation apartment, where NBC 5 Investigates found Sorrells in 2017.

The scandal at DCS stretched all the way to Dallas City Hall, where Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway admitted taking $450,000 in bribes, some of that in exchange for a vote that allowed the DCS bus camera program to continue operating. Caraway is serving a four and a half year...

Lawyer Sentenced to Prison for Concealing Bribes in DCS Scandal – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth (nbcdfw.com)

Bus Patrol America, BusPatrol, David McBain, Force Multiplier Solutions, Marc Elrich, Richard Hetherington, Todd Watkins, Tom Didone, Rick Sorrells, Richard Reynolds, Robert Leonard, Dwaine Caraway, Slater Swartwood Sr, Larry Duncan