Former Detroit Official Gets 20 Months for Bribery

Former Detroit Official Gets 20 Months for Bribery

A former top official in Detroit’s technology office has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for taking more than $29,500 in bribe payments from two information technology companies.

The former Director of the City of Detroit’s Office of Departmental Technology Services (DTS), Charles L. Dodd, 48, of Canton, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan.

Dodd admitted to accepting cash payments totaling more than $15,000 and a trip to North Carolina, among other things of value, from Parimal D. Mehta, 55, of Northville, Michigan, who was then the president and chief executive officer of an information technology company.

He also accepted more than $14,500 in cash payments from the chief executive officer and an employee of another information technology company.

In return for these cash payments and other things of value, Dodd agreed to provide preferential treatment to the companies, he admitted.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Detroit Division and prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Robert J. Heberle and James I. Pearce of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

Dodd’s sentencing comes after he previously pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of federal program bribery.