Evelyn Katrina Taylor-Parks, a 23-year City Hall veteran, pleaded guilty to conspiring to accept bribe payments from a city vendor for a period of time during her tenure as the City of Atlanta’s Deputy Chief of Staff to the Mayor.
According to U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak and U.S. Attorney’s office documents, “from February 2011 to February 2014, Parks conspired to accept bribes from a vendor with the City of Atlanta. The vendor paid Parks thousands of dollars, and in return the vendor received tens of thousands of dollars for City of Atlanta contract work.”
“I’m being charged with using influence to benefit a vendor that would have been in conflict with my role with the city of Atlanta,” Taylor-Parks told the judge in federal court on Wednesday morning. “At the time, I did not believe what I did was wrong.”
She faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced in early November.