WASHINGTON — A DC Fire and EMS employee was sentenced Friday to a year in prison for a scheme with a coworker to defraud the department. Her co-conspirator was sentenced earlier this month.
According to the Department of Justice, 45-year-old Charity Keys, of Bowie, Maryland, worked as a supply management specialist for FEMS. As part of her job, she would get office supplies and other items for the department. Her co-conspirator, 51-year-old Louis “Joey” Mitchell, III, was employed as a warehouse supply technician.
Mitchell had been with the department for 15 years while Keys had been an employee for 24 years.
The DOJ says the pair accepted more than $42,500 in kickbacks from a contractor in exchange for directing purchase agreements and orders to the contractor. She then falsely certified that goods that FEMS had paid for had been delivered when they had not.
As a result of the years-long scheme, the DOJ says FEMS paid the company approximately $250,000 for goods that never were delivered. Keys personally collected at least $42,500 in bribes from the contractor.
She pleaded guilty in July 2022 to federal bribery charges.
In addition to her 12 months in prison, Keys will be required to serve 36 months of supervised release with the first six months on home confinement, pay restitution in the amount of $257,680, a $42,500 forfeiture money judgment, and 100 hours of community service.
Mitchell was sentenced on Sept. 16, 2022, to 34 months in prison.
