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Thursday, May 05, 2011

Bribery Trial Begins for Former Virginia Delegate

A former official with Old Dominion University testified Monday that then-Del. Phillip A. Hamilton wanted a job at a new center his legislation would fund.

David A. Blackburn, 71, the head of ODU's Program for Research and Evaluation in Public Schools until 2009, was the only witness to testify on the opening day of Hamilton's bribery and extortion trial.

Blackburn, who has a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors giving him immunity, admitted he was less than truthful to state and ODU officials and even a federal grand jury about circumstances surrounding the hiring of Hamilton.

"I was part of trading a job for money," Blackburn said when asked by David V. Harbach II, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, about why he was not completely truthful when testifying before a federal grand jury in December 2009.

Hamilton, 59, was indicted in January on charges of helping to arrange state funding for an educational center at ODU, where he was hired as the director for $40,000 a year.

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1 comment:

  1. Mmmmm , makes you wonder about our school systems in general.
    The old saying ,"it's not what you know , it's who you know".
    Wicomico school system seems to be
    running neck and neck. Wouldn't you say?

    ReplyDelete

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