Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Two men have been acquitted of charges they defrauded the taxpayer-funded Bristol Township School District to “advance their personal business interests.”
James N. Anders, Jr, 59, of Willow Grove, Montgomery County, and Patrick Squires, 58, of Voorhees, New Jersey, were acquitted Thursday of all counts filed against them, including conspiracy and wire fraud. The men were indicted by federal prosecutors in September, accused of steering contracts to Squires’ businesses.
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A third defendant, Ernest Neff, 58, of Newtown, pleaded guilty previously and testified against Anders and Squires in the case. He has not been sentenced and the terms of his plea deal have been sealed by a federal judge, U.S. Attorney spokesperson Patty Hartman said.
Federal officials alleged that Squires worked with Anders, the Bristol Township School District’s former maintenance director, to get his companies non-competitive price quotes for various projects. Prosecutors said last year that the scheme cost the cash-strapped district $373,453.43. Neff reportedly played a role in some of Squires’ businesses.
Attorneys for Anders and Squires told LevittownNow.com the district lost no money and the bids were competitive, even saving the district money over previous contractors.
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“Mr. Anders is in very poor health and this was a very stressful time,” defense attorney Nancy MacEoin said of her wheelchair-bound client. “He knew from the beginning that this wasn’t true.”
Squires attorney, Joseph Mancano, said he believed the investigation that was started by Bucks County authorities and turned over to the FBI was most likely politically motivated.
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Hartman said she didn’t want to comment on the case or the five-day-long trial that ended with 12 jurors agreeing to acquit the two men of all charges.
If they were found guilty, Anders and Squires could have faced a maximum of 105 years in federal prison.
Mancano said it was “frightening” that the government could have sent these men, who he said were innocent, to prison for the rest of their lives. He added that despite near-unlimited investigatory resources, the FBI failed to look at certain pieces of evidence that showed the charges did not match what happened.
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Anders was fired by the Bristol Township School District in 2011 for violating district policies, MacEoin said.
After leaving the hands of Bucks County law enforcement, the case was handled by the FBI and was the focus of a federal grand jury.
