Ex-Columbia parks official pleads guilty to extortion

The city of Columbia’s former parks planner has pleaded guilty and agreed to a 15-month sentence on a federal charge of extorting money from a contractor.

Damon McDuffie admitted in court Dec. 16 that he took $10,000 in kickbacks from a contractor during four years ending in January 2010, according to court records and federal prosecutor Mark Moore.

An additional $5,000 in what the government alleges are kickbacks remain in dispute, Moore said Thursday.

McDuffie, 35, will repay city coffers the $10,000 and might face an additional $10,000 penalty when he is sentenced this winter by Judge Joseph Anderson, Moore said.

McDuffie’s attorney, federal public defender Allen Burnside, declined comment Thursday.

McDuffie worked for the city’s parks department for seven years despite a previous criminal history that includes numerous bad check charges, drug charges and a felony conviction for forgery. He rose from a maintenance worker position to the planning post, which carried a $44,000 annual salary.

McDuffie’s last day on the job was Oct. 21, 2010, the date of the indictment, according to city records.

The plea resulted in the government dropping a conspiracy count and its intent to seek a sentence of up to 20 years.

The prosecutor said evidence showed that an unindicted co-conspirator had been getting kickbacks from the contractor — whom Moore would not identify — for years before McDuffie became involved.

Moore would not say how much money changed hands overall, but said the investigation remains active.

The single largest kickback was $5,000 in return for steering a contract for refurbishing a footbridge in Riverfront Park, Moore said.

Eventually the contractor complained to federal officials about the scheme, Moore said. The contractor also recorded a telephone conversation in which McDuffie admitted the extortion plan and suggested that a kickback check be written to a third party, the prosecutor said. That person corroborated the scheme.

McDuffie’s criminal history in South Carolina shows 13 convictions for fraudulent checks dating from 1994 to 2002. He was on five years’ probation for his last bad checks conviction at the time he was hired by the city in May 2003, according to police and personnel records.

McDuffie had a 1996 conviction for forgery, a felony, and a 2000 conviction for possession of marijuana at the time of he became a Columbia employee.

Pam Benjamin, the city’s personnel director, said Thursday the city knew of McDuffie’s police record because hiring practices require criminal history checks.

At the time of McDuffie’s indictment, assistant city manager Alison Baker told a Columbia news weekly that McDuffie was hired as part of a “second-chance program.” Those who complete the program are hired by the city or local businesses.

Further, McDuffie and Baker are named in a pending federal age discrimination lawsuit filed by a former parks department superintendent. George Brown, 61, claims he was pushed out of his job in 2009 in order for an unqualified McDuffie to be promoted to an interim assistant director of operations.

In the suit, Brown alleges that Baker hired McDuffie “based on political favoritism” and that Brown was moved out so that Baker could be “able to pay McDuffie an inflated amount of salary.”

Brown’s suit also contends that he and others reported allegations that McDuffie committed crimes. The suit does not detail the criminal allegations.

McDuffie’s name was dropped from the case Nov. 21 because the lawsuit was served to his mother, where McDuffie received his mail, rather than to where he lived, according to an order signed by Judge Anderson. Baker is still named in the suit that has yet to come to trial.