in Houston, Texas
Officials in Hempstead, 'city of character,' accused of bribery
Saturday, Nov 15, 2008, 11:21AM CST
By Jennifer Peebles
Two city officials in Hempstead have been indicted and arrested on charges of taking bribes, several local news outlets are reporting this morning.

Mayor Pro Tem Larry Wilson and City Alderman Paris J. Kincade Jr. took $13,000 in bribes, the Chronicle story says:
The contractor was paid more than $19,000 to demolish four Hempstead buildings in 2007, and Wilson and Kincade told him they could steer him additional contracts worth up to $160,000, according to the indictment.

In exchange, the indictment states, the contractor paid Wilson $10,000 and Kincade $3,000.

The feds are involved because the demolition work was being done as part of a $350K federal community development block grant.

The town's mayor told KPRC-Channel 2 that "everybody is pretty much stunned."

The punchline, as pointed out by several commenters in The Chron's online forums: Hempstead's official Web site calls it a "city of character." We grabbed a screen shot for you.
Comments
Be the first to post a comment.
Tweets
offthekuff | 4 min 31 sec
New OTK post HISD Board renews Grier’s contract: It was not unanimous. The Houston school board on Thursday exte... http://t.co/hEejMnrL
KFDA NewsChannel10 | 8 min 9 sec
Want to get paid for surfing the Web? Then join Google’s Screenwise project http://t.co/hQKtabot
Christine Irizarry | 27 min 55 sec
Churches are exempt from having to provide unemployment insurance. But I guess that doesn't apply to big hospitals run by religious orgs??
lstexasnews | 30 min 12 sec
No smokes at UT? http://t.co/bxWuS2CP
offthekuff | 1 hour 5 min
New OTK post 2013 NBA All Star Game officially awarded to Houston: Yay, us! Seven years after last hosting, NBA ... http://t.co/pYJM2cPe
offthekuff | 1 hour 5 min
New OTK post Meet the new rail debate, same as the old rail debate: I feel like I’ve heard all this before. Oppo... http://t.co/Fbp7IIgP
© 2012 TEXAS WATCHDOG and USELABS. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement