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The Macon Telegraph (Georgia)
October 16, 2006
FORMER COBB OFFICIAL REFUSES TO APPEAR BEFORE GRAND JURY
The former Cobb County Schools superintendent who resigned last year after an audit found he manipulated a laptop contract in favor of Apple computers refused Friday to appear before a grand jury empaneled to investigate the failed program.
Joe Redden had been subpoenaed by the special grand jury to testify Friday as well as on Oct. 20 and Oct. 27. The grand jury has met every Friday since November 2005 to investigate the failed $100.8 million student laptop program that led to Redden's resignation in August 2005.
Redden's attorney, Brian Steel of Atlanta, filed a motion Wednesday asking the Cobb Superior Court to quash the subpoena requiring Redden to testify as well as dismiss both the special grand jury and Christopher Timmons, the assistant district attorney assigned to the case.
Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Jim Bodiford is expected to hear Redden's motion in open court this week, possibly Wednesday, said Leanne Dolin, Bodiford's staff attorney.
Making the former superintendent testify is "merely subterfuge concocted by the prosecution to unlawfully gain additional evidence to aid in the meritless persecution" of Redden, something the law forbids, Steel said.
"The law is clear that the potential target or subject of the grand jury's investigation cannot be hauled before the grand jury for inquisition," he wrote in the motion.
Steel's motion argues that although Redden is not specifically named as the investigation's target, he is under suspicion because a school board-commissioned investigation by private firm Kessler International said he was responsible for selecting Apple Computer to carry out the laptop program without supplying adequate documentation to make the decision.
Redden's proposal to provide laptops to teachers and eventually to all students in grades six through 12 led to a lawsuit filed by a former county commissioner, who challenged the method of using proceeds from a special sales tax approved in 2003. The contention was that voters were not aware that they would be paying for laptops with the money.
In July 2005, District Attorney Pat Head conducted a criminal investigation at the school board's request into allegations that the bidding process for the $100 million laptop program was slanted in favor of Apple Computer Inc.
After completing the investigation in October 2005, he asked Cobb County's nine Superior Court judges to empanel the special grand jury.
Redden has contended the investigation was politically motivated.
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