By J. PATRICK PEPPER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DETROIT — A former clerk in the city’s now-closed Building and Safety Department last week received a two-year prison sentence for accepting bribes in exchange for illegally issuing work permits.
Wanda Smith, 42, admitted in court to receiving bribes in excess of $15,000 in cash and repairs to her house and car for the permits between 2006 and 2008. Prosecutors said she issued the permits without charging a fee or at a greatly reduced fee.
After prison, Smith will face a two-year supervised release period. She also was ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution to the city.
Smith becomes the second former department employee to receive a prison sentence from a wide-ranging FBI probe into departmental corruption.
In 2009, Leticia Bosemon, also a clerk, was sentenced to 37 months and ordered to pay $63,000 in restitution after she admitted to producing and selling false performance bonds to people looking to skirt city escrow requirements on home purchases.