Chatham County Housing Authority director pleads not guilty to federal fraud charges

The executive director of the Chatham County Housing Authority pleaded not guilty Thursday to several charges related to more than $200,000 in alleged wire fraud.

JoAnn Davis was federally indicted in February during a wide-ranging investigation into fraud in the housing authority, which is based in Siler City.

Davis and three others were arrested Friday by U.S. Marshals in Greensboro and taken into federal custody.

Prosecutors said in a recently unsealed indictment that Davis conspired to defraud the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars going back to 2016.

Clintess Roberta Barrett-Johnson, Mi’chelle Necole Bell-Johnson, Robert Johnson Jr. and Candace Agatha Brunson-Poole, identified as family members and friends, were named in the indictment and arrested.

Brunson-Poole was arrested Monday, an arrest warrant shows.

Davis, Barrett-Johnson and Brunson-Poole are former employees of the Durham Housing Authority.

Davis appeared with her attorney Alvin Hudson in the N.C. Middle District courtroom in downtown Durham for an arraignment Thursday morning.

She pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, program fraud and false statements in violation of federal law.

Prosecutors told Judge Joe Webster that they had secured evidence in the case through a search warrant and needed to finish reviewing it before proceeding.

Prosecutors made a motion for a status conference to be held next Friday.

The prosecution has evidence that spans over 8,000 pages “not including voluminous bank record data and Excel files,” according to motions reviewed by The N&O.

Hudson declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing.

Davis and her alleged co-conspirators are accused of defrauding the government through a scheme that awarded family members and friends fraudulent contracts for housing authority services, for which Davis allegedly received kickbacks.

Davis is still listed as the housing authority’s executive director on county websites.

Davis continues to hold her job as executive director, according to a motion filed Thursday by her attorney. The motion seeks to amend Davis’ release conditions to allow her to communicate with Barrett-Johnson, who is also still employed at the housing authority and is supervised by Davis.

The motion asks for a judge to allow communication between the two women “only for work-related purposes” unrelated to the case.

Another 14 people are included as unindicted co-conspirators in federal prosecution documents, The N&O previously reported.