Neighbors Fight Thorpe
Leroy Thorpe complaint filed with D.C. auditor's office (PDF format, 447KB)
The Shaw advisory neighborhood commission's outgoing chair, Al Hajj Mahdi Leroy Joseph Thorpe Jr. has had a busy December. He was officially voted out of his elected position on the ANC, only to be appointed to a new role—parliamentarian and executive assistant to the chair—by new chair Barbara Curtis. He took over a Shaw neighborhood association and two days later allocated his new organization $3,000 in ANC money for new computers.
Yesterday, in a surprise move, Shaw residents filed a complaint with the city auditor “alleging questionable allocation of thousands of DC taxpayer dollars.”
“The era of cronyism, mistreatment and disrespect of residents, and misallocation of funds is over,” says Cary Silverman, president of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association, in a news release. “Shaw residents will no longer stand for this type of blatant abuse of power.”
In their complaint, residents have dug up and detailed years of ANC impropriety and questionable spending. It requests special attention be paid to the 18 computers and other equipment given to neighborhood organizations that have close ties to Thorpe, Curtis, and current commissioner Doris Brooks. Those organizations are Thorpe's East Central Civic Association, Rhode Island Avenue through P Street Neighborhood Association (which the complaint alleges to be a fictional organization), COPE (which does “red-hat” patrols), and the Gibson Plaza Tenant Association (where Curtis resides).
The complaint alleges that on paper, there are over a dozen computers floating somewhere around Shaw, but no one knows where they are or what they're being used for. According to residents, the organizations that received the equipment fail to post meeting agendas, minutes, or newsletters. Furthermore, the organizations do not use a Web site, e-mail, or anything else that would demand the use of a computer.
“Given the number or computers supposedly purchased for public use, the residents and students of our neighborhoods should legitimately expect to have a public access computer lab readily available for their use,” the release states. “Of course they do not.”
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4:45 pm
Looks like Thorpe likes to play Santa Claus with others' money.
9:31 pm
Well, if the allegations are true, it would appear that Mr. Thorpe is in serious trouble. Where are the computers, sir?
3:19 pm
Lets hope DC follows up on this misuse of tax payer funds.
As Leroy Thorpe and Jack Evans are big buddies, I wonder what Jack Evans thinks of all this?
3:35 pm
What do you think the chances are that this could have criminal consequences for Thorpe?
ANC5C02 Neighbor
1:48 am
If he is friends with Jack Evans there will be no criminal consequences as Jack will get him out of the box.
12:45 am
If Jack backs Leroy or looks the other way or burys his head deeper in the sand, he may lose a lot of voters the next time he runs for city council. Mr Thorpe has gone too far. It would be nice if he would just go away. Thank g*d Chapple kicked his tail out of the ANC2C02 commissioner seat. Now someone needs to work on completely removing the Thorpe & "Friends" roadblock to progress and civility.
9:27 am
Even with a very admirable record of public service, a council member -- like any official -- is only as good as his last big error in judgement.
Mr Thorpe's fall has already snagged some by surprise; and as we?ve seen even recently with the ECCA hiJACK, Thorpe only really cares about his own back side. Wise people would cut ties to a sinking ship. ANC 2C deserves a council member who cares a little more about something that vexes so many of its vocal voting constituents and community leaders.
1:39 am
The Fenty Movie
1:40 am
I want to be a crook like Jack Evans has been so successfully.
I want to have a secret slush fund to help my friends get elected and ahead.
I want to have two faces and wear them well, just like Jack.
I want to have lips as big as Mick Jagger so I can kiss the ass of others, just like Jack.
I want season passes to the Nationals, Wizards and more, just like Jack.
I want to walk into Clydes, order up a $175 dinner and when leaving hear the manager say: ?Its on the house?, just like Jack.
YES, you can now amaze your friends by telling them you most definitely know Jack!