Jury selection begins in DeKalb corruption trial

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Monday marked the first day of jury selection in a high-profile corruption case that involves a former DeKalb County Schools superintendent.

Patricia Reid and Tony Pope are on trial; they used to be married.

Reid is the former chief operations officer for the district.

Pope is an architect who did a lot of work for the system before and during Reid's tenure.

A grand jury indicted Reid, Pope and Crawford Lewis on racketeering and several theft by taking charges. Lewis is the county's former superintendent.

Within the last two weeks, Lewis decided to take a plea deal and testify against Reid and Pope.

Officials accuse Reid and Pope of steering millions of taxpayer dollars in their direction. It is also alleged Lewis knew about what was going on and signed off on all of the necessary paperwork.

On Monday, attorneys for the state and defense and the judge spoke to the first wave of potential jurors.

In all, there are 200 potential jurors.

In court, the jurors answered questions on a variety of topics, like how long they have lived in the county, where their kids go to school and whether they have ever worked in construction.

Specific questions about Lewis created some interesting discussion.

Several potential jurors said they are familiar with him and were not sure if they could believe his testimony.

Lewis was not in court Monday.

Jury selection is expected to continue Tuesday.

WSBTV