A handy loophole for corruption in California

The Sacramento County district attorney said Thursday that a California Highway Patrol lieutenant who steered no-bid state contracts to a company owned by his daughter and son-in-law won't face criminal conflict-of-interest charges because he did not financially benefit.

District Attorney Jan Scully announced the decision not to file criminal charges against Lt. Gregory Williams of Rancho Cordova in an afternoon statement. In a five-page letter to Assistant CHP Chief Fritz Eberly of the CHP's Office of Internal Affairs, Scully wrote: "After a careful examination of all facts and applying the applicable law, we have concluded there is no reasonable likelihood of successfully prosecuting Lt. Gregory Williams for criminal misconduct." The evidence does not show that Lt. Williams had any prohibited financial interest in any of the contracts at issue," Scully added.

The decision, which comes after the District Attorney's Office spent months reviewing the findings of a CHP criminal probe launched last November, overturned the Highway Patrol's recommendation that criminal charges be filed against Williams for conflict of interest.

Scully said California criminal conflict-of-interest laws prohibit a government employee from influencing any state contract in which the employee has a "financial interest." The statute includes spouses and children, but only if they are financial dependents. It does not include the financial interest of "an independent, adult child." Williams' adult daughter, Krystal Miner, no longer lives at home, the district attorney found. She has long denied any wrongdoing on the part of herself or her father.

Messages left with Williams' Sacramento attorney, Christopher Wing, were not returned. Williams was put on administrative leave by the CHP in late November.

Fran Clader, a CHP spokeswoman, thanked Scully's office for reviewing the case. Clader said the CHP's own internal administrative investigation into Williams' conduct continues and that Williams remains on paid administrative leave. Asked when the internal probe would be finished, Clader replied: "When it's completed." Clader would not say whether e-mails deleted from Williams' CHP computer -- a discovery officers made after the criminal probe began -- were ever recovered.

The CHP started scrutinizing Williams last fall after The Bee raised questions about his role in awarding $600,000 in CHP deals to purchase license plate scanning systems. One deal for more than $101,116 was awarded to Miner Fabricating, which acted as a California distributor for the maker of the systems, PIPS Technology Inc. of Nashville. A second $500,000 deal awarded directly to PIPS, which also bought metal brackets from Miner Fabricating to mount the scan system cameras on CHP cars, was subsequently canceled by state officials. PIPS Technology has since been sold to a new owner.

Scully said the CHP probe found no evidence that Williams had any ownership or business interest in Miner Fabricating or that he received income from Miner Fabricating or any other company involved with the license plate scanning program. Miner is operated by his daughter and son-in-law. "Under these facts, there is no criminal violation," Scully wrote, noting that she reviewed only the criminal aspects of the case, not any potential violations of state or CHP regulations or procedures.

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