LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that a former employee of the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”), GEORGE ORTIZ, pleaded guilty today to extortion and bribery charges. According to the Indictment to which ORTIZ pleaded guilty, other documents filed in the case, and statements made during the guilty plea proceeding before United States District Judge BARBARA S. JONES in Manhattan federal court:
ORTIZ, 64, of Bronx, New York, worked as a supervisor in the DOE Office of Pupil Transportation (“OPT”). OPT sets the specifications for bus routes; oversees the process by which private bus companies bid for and obtain certain bus routes; processes requests from bus companies to have certain routes classified as “extended” (and hence more costly) because they begin earlier or run later than standard DOE bus times; and conducts safety and mechanical inspections of school buses.
ORTIZ and fellow supervisors NEIL CREMIN and IRA SOKOL were specifically assigned to the OPT division responsible for providing bus and other transportation services to special education students.
