Ex-Detroit City Council staffer enters guilty plea

DETROIT (AP) -- A former chief of staff to a Detroit City Council president has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents investigating public corruption. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says John Clark admitted last Friday to lying about returning $3,000 to a Synagro Technologies executive. The company had been seeking a multimillion-dollar sludge hauling contract with the city. The contract was approved in November 2007. Clark faces up to five years in prison. He could face a longer sentence if U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn decides Clark also lied to agents when he denied accepting the money as a reward to get Synagro's contract as a voting item before the Council when he worked for then-President Ken Cockrel Jr. Cockrel was not a target of the probe. Published: Tue, Apr 19, 2011