[StBernard] NEW ORLEANS WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CONCEALING A FELONY

[Westley Annis]

NEW ORLEANS WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CONCEALING A FELONY 
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - STACY SIMMS, age 47, a resident of New Orleans,
Louisiana, pled guilty before U. S. District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon in
federal court to misprision of a felony, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.
SIMMS faces a possible maximum penalty of three (3) years imprisonment.

        According to court documents, from 2001 thru 2007, while an elected
member of the Orleans Parish School Board, ELLENESE BROOKS-SIMMS secretly
conspired with a local businessman to approve the purchase of an educational
software program for the Orleans Parish School System.  The local
businessman received over $900,000 of Orleans Parish School Board money as
sales commissions for selling the software program to the school board.  In
exchange for her assistance in promoting and approving the software program,
ELLENESE BROOKS-SIMMS received approximately $140,000 as "kickbacks" from
the local businessman, and her daughter, STACY SIMMS, concealed her
knowledge of the criminal conduct, by allowing a bank account in her name to
be opened and used as a clearinghouse for bribe payments. 

        The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
the Criminal Division of the Internal Revenue Service and the Office of the
Inspector General for the Department of Education.

        The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorneys Salvador
Perricone, Richard R. Pickens, II and Michael Simpson.