It was obvious in Adams County Courtroom 302 Friday morning that there was no love lost between witness and the accused — in this case, a former Quality Paving employee and the former president of the disgraced company.
But neither that — nor the fact that some testimony at a preliminary hearing drifted into the realm of “hearsay” — derailed the felony case against Jerry Rhea, the paving company’s former president who is among six people accused of taking part in a scheme that allegedly ripped off $1.8 million from taxpayers.
Adams County Judge Dianna Roybal ordered Rhea to stand trial on multiple felonies after a morning-long preliminary hearing.
In all, Rhea stands accused of 23 felonies in an ongoing investigation that began three years ago.
Roybal’s ruling came after Adams County prosecutors laid much of the foundation of their case with their first witness — a former Quality Paving employee named Heath Russo who had already pleaded guilty to misdemeanor and felony theft counts and agreed to testify against the others allegedly involved in the scheme.
Russo, a former supervisor at Quality Paving’s sister company, testified that he repeatedly falsified bills sent to Adams County — sometimes adding as much as 30 percent to the amount of materials actually used.
Russo testified that he did that at the direction of Rhea.
According to Russo, among his jobs was keeping track of the daily work done under the company’s 2007 contract to fill cracks and slurry-seal various Adams County roads. Russo said Rhea repeatedly instructed him to alter the materials to drive up the price of the job. And in some cases, Russo testified, the company billed the county for work that was never done.
“There was probably three or four streets that we didn’t do,” Russo said.
The invoices were altered, Russo testified, to allow the company to recoup increased costs and turn a profit after the owners had promised to do work in 2005, 2006 and 2007 at 2004 prices.
Quality Paving and Quality Resurfacing had originally been awarded the contracts after bidding on them in 2004. The next three years, the Adams County commissioners extended those contracts without putting them out to bid after the company agreed to keep the 2004 prices in place.
But according to Russo, Rhea simply ordered that the invoices be changed to reflect higher prices.
Under cross-examination, Russo acknowledged that he doesn’t think much of Rhea.
“Isn’t it true that you hate Jerry Rhea?” defense attorney Tony Leffert asked.
“That’s correct,” Russo testified without flinching.
Russo also acknowledged that he may have told friends that he wanted Rhea to go to jail even if he ended up behind bars himself.
After Russo’s testimony and that of Adams County sheriff’s investigator Terry Miles, prosecutor Cynthia Kowert argued that Rhea’s actions were akin to the mastermind of a bank job, who coaxes his underlings to actually commit the robbery.
“Mr. Rhea is directing Mr. Russo to falsify documents, to add approximately 27 percent over what should have been charged, in order to cheat the county, because they can’t operate at 2004 prices in 2007 and make money,” Kowert said.
Roybal ruled that enough evidence existed to try Rhea on the six most serious felony counts.
He faces a June 1 arraignment.
