Former school official gets 6 years in prison

CLEVELAND - A former Cleveland schools official was sentenced to six years in prison for bribery and extortion charges on Wednesday.

Bernard Watkins, 54, of Shaker Heights, was the former technical supervisor for safety and security for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He was found guilty of two counts of extortion under color of official right and one count of bribery in federally funded programs.

According to the Department of Justice, Watkins took $7,000 from a company doing business with the school system based in Galveston, Texas. A representative with the company eventually alerted the Cleveland office of the FBI about the transactions.

“People who use their position to violate the public’s trust cannot and will not be tolerated,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “Contracts are supposed to go to the best bidder, not somebody’s best friend or the person who gave a cash bribe.”