Dawnell Parker, 52, pleaded guilty Oct. 26, 2023, to conspiracy to commit bribery after accepting free meals from Navy contractors. (File)
A Navy official pleaded guilty recently to a bribery conspiracy charge after accepting free meals at fancy restaurants from two defense contractors who were later awarded millions of dollars in government contracts.
Dawnell Parker, 52, admitted guilt Thursday in a plea deal whose terms were not disclosed in public court documents. The sentencing in Southern California federal court is scheduled for January 2024.
Parker accepted thousands of dollars in meals from the contractors while working in contracting at the Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego, according to court records.
The two unidentified contractors are a Fredericksburg, Va., defense firm and a company with offices in Stafford, Va., and San Diego, the Justice Department said Thursday in a statement.
“Ms. Parker’s actions directly undermined the fair competition that ensures our warfighters always have the technological advantage over potential adversaries,” Tyler Hatcher, an IRS special agent, said in the Justice Department statement.
Prosecutors said Parker began conspiring with a co-worker to accept the bribes in March 2016.
That’s three years after the first arrests in the ongoing “Fat Leonard” investigation, a scandal that has led to guilty verdicts from at least 17 Navy officers and civilians for accepting payouts and gifts from contractor Leonard Glenn Francis.
Parker and her co-worker accepted at least 11 meals valued at almost $6,000, the plea agreement said.
Parker and her co-worker first accepted a free meal worth more than $600 at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Arlington, Va., on March 31, 2016.
Days later, Parker served on a board evaluating the contractor. The next day, the company was awarded a roughly $1 million contract, according to the stipulations in the plea deal.
Other freebies accepted included a $697 tab at the De Medici Cucina in San Diego, a sushi lunch worth $852 and another trip to Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Arlington for a $917 meal.
In exchange for the meals, Parker and her co-worker submitted glowing contractor evaluations and gave the company information to help them win bids, the agreement said. In Sept. 2016, the company was awarded a contract worth $2.1 million over five years.
Another contractor also provided the pair with meals and employed Parker’s co-worker’s wife, prior to winning a $47 million contract, the plea agreement said.
