Former DOT engineer gets jail sentence of 37 months

From The Daily Reflector

http://www.reflector.com/news/former-dot-engineer-gets-jail-sentence-of-37-months-1008716.html

A former Department of Transportation engineer was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to three years in prison on extortion charges in connection with bridge work done in Pitt and Beaufort counties, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said.

Dalton Ray Alligood Jr. was sentenced to 37 months in prison, followed by two years of probation, for extortion under the color of official right, a violation of U.S. statutes, spokeswoman Robin Zier said. Alligood worked as a district engineer in charge of the bridge maintenance unit in Pitt and Beaufort counties for the NCDOT transportation division. He supervised 32 employees and was empowered to enter “fully operational rental” contracts with private companies, Zier said.

“Alligood used his power to extort kickbacks from contractors in exchange for contract awards,” Zier said.

In 2004, Alligood provided an excavation company two small, fully-operational rental contracts after he formed a social relationship with its owners, Zier said. The owners then offered him a 10 percent kickback on all future contracts, which Alligood accepted with the condition that the kickbacks be made in cash, Zier said.

Alligood went on to award dozens of contracts to the excavation company and received payments in excess of $300,000.

The scheme came to an end when the arrests of former NCDOT officials Danny Taylor, Chad Fornes and Mike Delmonte, who were charged with using their positions to extort cash from contractors, were reported in the media, Zier said.

Holding commented on the situation following the sentencing.

“Civil servants are responsible to perform their duties free of any conflict or improper personal gain,” he said. “Unfortunately, the defendant set aside those obligations.”