From staff and wire reports

JACKSON, Miss. – A Lisbon man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official for allegedly making a deal to falsify debris removal documents after hurricane Katrina.

Paul Darrell Nelson of Lisbon entered a plea in the U.S. District Court of Hattiesburg, Miss. He will be sentenced June 8 along with Mitchell Glen Kendrix of Memphis, Tenn., who pleaded guilty to an identical charge, U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton said.

The two could be sentenced up to five years in prison each and given $250,000 fines.

The charges were the first related to government corruption in Mississippi involving the $2 billion Katrina relief effort.

Nelson was working for a debris removal subcontractor on Katrina cleanup in Perry County, Miss., when he allegedly struck a deal with Kendrix to falsify load tickets for trips to a Hintonville, Miss., dump site.

Kendrix, according to court records, was working as a quality assurance representative for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the time.

The federal charges allege that Nelson would pay Kendrix $20 for each false load ticket. The tickets are used by contractors and subcontractors to claim pay from the federal government for services rendered.

Materials supporting the federal indictments note that on Oct. 24, agents began to look into an allegation Kendrix sought a cash bribe from a debris removal subcontractor.

Nelson agreed to cooperate with agents, who monitored his next transactions with Kendrix on video, where Nelson paid Kendrix $100 for five false load tickets, the complaint said.

When agents confronted Kendrix on Nov. 2, he first denied accepting bribes, but after being confronted with evidence, he admitted to accepting bribes from Nelson, the complaint said.

On Nov. 9, Nelson told agents that he paid the bribes. He said he had purchased 14 tickets for $20 each, the complaint said. “Nelson said that Kendrix initiated the bribery scheme. Nelson said he told his employer about the bribe payments to Kendrix after the first payment had occurred, and that his employer was aware he was turning in false load tickets,” the complaint maintains.

Nelson, who does not have a telephone listed under his name in Lisbon, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.