Pubdate: Fri, 04 Nov 2005
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html
Website: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Mark Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POLICE: EVACUEES' FEMA MONEY USED TO BUY CRACK

The three guys washed up at an extended-stay hotel in Norcross, part of the 
wave of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who flooded temporary housing facilities 
across metro Atlanta earlier this year.

But instead of using Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency aid 
to buy furniture, groceries or the incidentals you need after fleeing a 
hurricane, police said, the trio had a high old time buying and selling crack.

Now, Gwinnett police said Thursday, the three have a new residence the 
Gwinnett County jail.

Ronald Michael Claude, 22; Gary Lee Leonard, 23; and Michael Joseph Sanson, 
20, all of New Orleans, remained jailed without bond Thursday afternoon on 
a felony charge of selling crack. They're also charged with possession of 
marijuana.

Police were happy to put them behind bars, said Officer Darren Moloney, a 
spokesman for Gwinnett police. "What is unique about these three is that 
they all seemed to be on the same page," he said. "They thought the 
government owed it [cash] to them. They were all quite boastful about it."

Officials at the Red Cross and FEMA, which have distributed millions to 
help storm victims, were appalled, but unapologetic. Most aid recipients, 
they said, have used the donations properly.

"We can't control how people spend their assistance money," said FEMA 
spokeswoman Susie Webb, who works at the agency's regional offices in Atlanta.

FEMA has handled claims from more than 46,000 families who fled Hurricanes 
Katrina and Rita and settled in Georgia, Webb said. It also has a contract 
with a company that arranges hotel and motel lodging for some evacuees.

"That was very bad judgment on [the the three men's] parts," added Tiffany 
Fell of the Red Cross, a nongovernmental aid agency.

Police arrested the men about midnight Wednesday at the Amberley Suite 
Hotel in Norcross, a three-story complex hard against I-85 where weekly 
accommodations start at $281.33. Its parking lot is dotted with cars from 
Mississippi and Louisiana.

Claude, Sanson and Leonard, said police, shared room 136. They noticed the 
men while investigating an unrelated shooting, Moloney said.

As they talked to the men, investigators quickly determined that the three 
hadn't used government and Red Cross help in the intended manner, Moloney 
said. When police arrested him, Sanson had about $600 Red Cross aid, he 
told investigators.

The Red Cross has handled more than 33,000 Katrina cases in metro Atlanta, 
disbursing as much as $1,500 to some families, said Fell. She could not 
confirm whether Claude, Leonard or Sanson had received aid.

Sanson also had a fraudulent ID card that he said he'd used to rent rooms 
at government expense. Hotel clerks, seeing the New Orleans address on the 
card, simply billed FEMA for the room, police said.

Leonard told police he'd rented two hotel rooms, plus a house for his 
family, all at government expense, Moloney said. "He's got a house to stay 
in, but it's inconvenient because he has family there," said Moloney.

He had also relied on the Red Cross and FEMA to underwrite his $20-a-day 
drug habit, Leonard told police.

Police at first were surprised at the suspects' candor, Moloney said. Then 
they got mad.

"It's my tax dollars going down the tube, too," Moloney said.

The news also steamed Mary Margaret Walker, a FEMA spokeswoman in 
Washington. "What these gentlemen did, if they did it, is fraud," she said. 
"We won't tolerate it."

If the three men were drug dealers, a handful of people staying at the 
hotel said Thursday, they were quiet ones.

"What? Here?" asked Bobby Barrett, a Fulton man who's staying on the third 
floor with his daughter, Brikita.

Police were still investigating the case and may call in some help. The 
FBI, said Moloney, might want to know more about evacuees' federally funded 
lifestyle.
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