Ex-FEMA worker pleads guilty in contract probe

NEW ORLEANS

A former employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating a federal conflict-of-interest law for helping a government contractor prepare a FEMA contract proposal for maintaining government-issued shelters in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Federal prosecutors say Robert Blevins, 75, of Ft. Pierce, Fla., faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $100,000 fine following his guilty plea Wednesday. His sentencing is set for Aug. 1.

Blevins was charged last year with helping David Dangler, owner of 3-D Disaster Services Inc., fraudulently obtain a $100 million contract for maintaining thousands of government-issued shelters in Plaquemines Parish after the 2005 storm.

Blevins' indictment said he assisted Dangler with the contract proposal before resigning from FEMA in 2006 and going to work for 3-D Disaster Services, which allegedly paid him with proceeds from the FEMA contract.

Dangler also was charged in the case. Blevins' attorney said in October that Dangler, a U.S. citizen who lived in Honduras at the time of his indictment, remained at large.

FEMA paid Dangler's company more than $31 million under the contract between May 2006 and January 2010.