Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

Ex-TECom official convicted of corruption

The former chief of the aviation division for Army Test and Evaluation Command was convicted Tuesday in federal court on public corruption charges, according to the Justice Department.

Jeffrey H. Stayton, 57, of Spotsylvania, Va., was convicted by a federal jury in Montgomery, Ala.

Also convicted was William C. Childree, 69, of Enterprise, Ala. Childree is the owner and operator of Maverick Aviation Inc.

Each man was found guilty of two counts of honest services wire fraud. Stayton was also convicted of one count of obstruction of justice. Both men were acquitted of a single count of bribery after the weeklong trial in front of U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey.

In November 2001, the government selected Maverick to procure and deliver two helicopters for use by the U.S. government. The contract was worth about $4.7 million. Stayton, in his role as an Army Test and Evaluation Command official, took actions that favored Maverick’s selection as the contract recipient, according to DoJ officials. He also misled government officials about Maverick’s performance under the contract.

Childree later used some of the money from the contract to pay off the mortgage on his home in Enterprise and secretly wired a third party more than $61,000 from a Maverick bank account, DoJ officials said. That money was used to pay the mortgage on Stayton’s home in Spotsylvania.

During the trial, the jury heard evidence that on June 29, 2005, Stayton appeared before the grand jury and falsely testified that Childree’s $61,000 payment was a loan, according to DoJ.

Stayton and Childree each face up to 20 years in prison on the honest services wire fraud charges, and Stayton faces up to 10 years on the obstruction of justice charge. Sentencing is scheduled for March 3.

Special agents from Army Criminal Investigation Command investigated the case with support from the FBI.