Last month, the Morning News reported that Frankie Forshee, a code enforcement worker and 13-year city employee, had been arrested and was facing a trio of bribery charges.
Details were scarce at the time. Code Compliance Director Jimmy Martin told the paper only that Forshee had been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of an investigation and that he worked in the department's environmental section, where he had a desk job.
"It is just internal," Martin said at the time. "It's not that he goes out to different sites in the city."
Actually, it appears that he did. According to police reports filed yesterday in his felony case, Forshee conducted several unauthorized inspections at businesses on C.F. Hawn Freeway on February 27.
His first stop that day was a transmission business owned by Corwin Christian. Forshee pulled out his citation book and told him the operation was in gross violation of city code. It would have to be shut down -- unless, of course, Christian was willing to work with him.
To explain, Forshee turned over his citation book and wrote "$200" on the back. Christian slipped Forshee the cash, and the code inspector turned and left.
His next stop was Precise Tax Services, where he also found numerous violations of city code. He told the owner, Keisha Golston, that the rules dictated that he should offer her a citation, though he'd be willing to ignore the violation if she'd give him $100, which she did.
The final, and most ambitious, stop on Forshee's alleged shakedown tour was to a car repair shop. He told the owner the business faced a $10,000 fine, though he might be willing to put away his citation book in exchange for $500.
There was a small problem: the owner, Jose Flores, only had $100 cash. Forshee took this and promised to return the next day for the rest. He was as good as his word and showed up at 1 p.m. So did the police, who arrested him as he walked out of the business with a $50 bill in his waistband.
City spokesman Frank Librio says Forshee has been fired.
