Last suspect in Mucogee Superior Court clerk scandal now negotiating plea, records show
The last suspect is negotiating a plea in the multi-defendant Muscogee Superior Court clerk scandal that authorities said may have cost taxpayers over $1 million.
Court records show Rosalee Bassi, the mother-in-law of alleged ringleader and longtime Superior Court Clerk supervisor Willie Demps, is in discussions with federal prosecutors for a possible guilty plea.
Bassi is from Cameroon and needs an interpreter for official court proceedings, though she can speak English, attorneys said. She was to be in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, when Demps is to have a pretrial conference, but her hearing will be postponed, according to court records.
Federal prosecutors have alleged Demps wired more than $500,000 to contacts in Africa between 2010 and 2018, most of it to Cameroon. He also send funds to Nigeria, Senegal, Gabon, Gambia, Ecuador and Canada, they said.
Bassi is represented by Columbus attorney Pete Temesgen, who declined comment.
Bassi is expected to be the last suspect to plea, as records show Demps already is negotiating to close his case before a trial set for later this month.
Court filings show Judge Clay Land has issued an order shielding Demps’ tax records from public disclosure as Demps and prosecutors discuss his pleading guilty to tax evasion.
“The United States and defendant Willie Demps are negotiating a plea agreement in this case,” read a Jan. 13 filing from U.S. Attorney Peter Leary.
“The parties anticipate that defendant Demps will plead guilty to ... information which includes a charge of tax evasion,” it adds. “The discovery materials for this additional charge or charges contains confidential tax returns and taxpayer return information.”
Land issued an order restricting access to those records to Demps and to the attorneys involved.
Should Demps agree to plea during Tuesday’s hearing, “counsel shall email notification of the plea, and a copy of the plea agreement if possible, to the courtroom deputy,” Land wrote.
Bassi and six other codefendants were accused of helping Demps steal at least $467,000 from accounts that Demps managed while working nearly 30 years for the clerk’s office, part of that time as chief deputy clerk.
Demps managed funds for which he was authorized to write checks on Superior Court Clerk accounts at area banks. He recruited others to help him cash those checks, sometimes meeting them outside the bank branches, or outside the Columbus Government Center where he worked, authorities said.
The accounts he oversaw held court funds derived from felony and misdemeanor fines, forfeitures and condemnations. The accounts were at Synovus Financial Corp., SunTrust Bank and Colony Bank.
Demps’ indictment said he took blank office checks, wrote them to codefendants and signed them, before they took the checks to be cashed.
Demps was arrested Aug. 18, 2021, after he and his codefendants’ 71-count indictment alleged wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and transporting stolen goods and money.
Prosecutors later said significantly more government funds still were missing. An FBI agent testified last year that out of $5.9 million in cash collected by the clerk’s office from 2010 to 2019, only $210 was deposited to office accounts.
Demps was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, 35 counts of wire fraud and 34 counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. If convicted on those counts, he would face up to 30 years on each conspiracy charge, 20 years on each count of wire fraud and 10 years on each interstate transportation charge, authorities said.
Besides Bassi, 65, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, others charged in the alleged scheme were:
- Terry McBride, 43, of Smiths Station, Alabama
- Lamarcus Palmer, 34, of Smiths Station, Alabama
- George Cook, 33, of Columbus
- Samuel Cole, 72, of Columbus
- Curtis Porch, 48, of Columbu.
- Dereen Porch, 43, also known as Dereen Fitzgerald, of Columbus