FORT SMITH -- An employee of state Sen. Jake Files' construction company who was awarded a contract for work on the River Valley Sports Complex said Monday that she knew nothing about the contract award until she read her name in news accounts weeks later.
DiAnna Gonzalez of Pocola, Okla., said Monday at the office of Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen that she never submitted a bid for waterline work at the sports complex site at Chaffee Crossing and that she didn't know the $26,945.91 Files ordered her to deposit into a bank account in her name was from a state General Improvement Fund grant.
Files had arranged for the grant to be awarded to Fort Smith so it could pay for the waterline work that was awarded to Gonzalez. The city has since demanded that Gonzalez return the grant money.
But Gonzalez said Monday -- and in an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in August -- that Files ordered her to give him the money, which she said he used, in part, to pay her; her husband, FFH Construction LLC project overseer Mike Shuffett; and four other company employees who had not been paid for months for working for Files.
"They were all waiting out in the parking lot for their pay because they didn't get anything for Thanksgiving or Christmas," Shuffett said.
Gonzalez said none of the pay they received Dec. 30 was for work at the sports complex.
From the General Improvement Fund grant money that had been deposited into her account, Gonzalez said, Files told her to take to his office $14,000 in cash and a cashier check for $11,931.91 made out to FFH Construction. From the cash, she said, he paid $4,805 in payroll, $1,978.42 to Gonzalez and Shuffett as reimbursement for expenses, and $1,500 to the two as a Christmas bonus.
Gonzalez said the payments Dec. 30 were the last they received from Files.
After paying employees, Files put the $11,931.91 cashier check and the approximately $5,500 in remaining cash in his pocket, Gonzalez said. The FBI affidavit said Files deposited the cashier check into his bank account at First National Bank of Fort Smith the same day.
Files and Lee Webb entered an agreement with the city in 2014 to develop tournament-quality baseball and softball fields on 60 acres of Fort Smith property. The city agreed to give $1.6 million for the project, and Files and Webb said they would cover the remaining costs from in-kind donations of materials and labor.
The city terminated the agreement in January after work on the project stalled and after paying out more than $1 million of the promised $1.6 million.
"Since there is litigation pending, I have been advised to make no comment," Files said in an email Monday when contacted by a reporter seeking comment. "I can tell you that there are two sides to this story and I look forward to being vindicated when I am able to share my side."
When city officials summoned Files for a meeting after learning two of the three bidders said they never bid on the project, Gonzalez said, Files told her to go with him. But she said Files didn't explain why.
"Jake just told me I needed to go with him to this meeting," she said. "Carl [Geffken, city administrator] asked me for my ID. Tracey [Shockley, city internal auditor] asked me to sign a piece of paper. And that was it. They looked at Jake and said, 'You might want to have her leave the room before we discuss anything else,' and I got up and left."
The city's preliminary internal audit on the project said city officials then talked with Files about the falsification of the bids, after which he asked if he could obtain legitimate bids and submit them.
Geffken said Monday that he and Shockley discussed the sports complex bid with Gonzalez and that Shockley asked her for her ledger on whom she paid and how much. Geffken said Gonzalez never submitted the information.
"We did discuss the work she was to have performed," Geffken said.
Geffken said Gonzalez told him she had Files prepare the bid in her name because she didn't have access to a printer.
McCutchen said he had acquired a similar document, titled a general affidavit, in which Gonzalez authorized Files to fill out and sign a W-9 form Gonzalez had to submit to the city in order to receive the General Improvement Fund grant.
It said:
"I DiAnna Gonzalez, first being duly sworn, state as follows:
"I called Jake Files on 12/29/16 and asked him to print and fill out a W-9 for me as I did not have a computer or printer and I advised him to sign my name for me and submit it to the city of Fort Smith.
"I certify, under penalty of perjury of the laws of the [sic] Arkansas that the above written statements herein are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge."
It was signed "DiAnna Gonzalez."
Gonzalez said Monday that she never submitted that affidavit and believes that Files forged it.
Gonzalez said she was shocked when she saw her name in newspaper articles about Files and the sports complex.
She said she and Shuffett decided to come forward with their story months after the city terminated its agreement with Files and Webb on the sports complex project because their reputations have been damaged and they cannot find work.
Shuffett said two weeks ago that they had gotten a job worth $50,000 for work on a house in Fort Smith that had been damaged in a fire. The woman who hired them saw a newspaper article about the sports complex investigation and fired them on the spot.
He said she called them scam artists and said they had been indicted for crimes in connection to the complex. The couple have not been charged with any crime.
"She had us go inside the bank thinking that we were getting a deposit, and her and her mother just flew into us right there in front of everybody," Gonzalez said.
That has been the only work they have been able to get since they quit their jobs at FFH Construction last winter, Shuffett said.
The FBI affidavit said Gonzalez was interviewed about the sports complex bid in mid-July. After they told their story, according to Gonzalez, she and Shuffett said they did not think it would take long for FBI agents to complete their investigation because the federal agents said Gonzalez's and Shuffett's story "makes our case."
Nothing has happened since, Gonzalez said, and they felt it was time they stepped forward and cleared their names. Shuffett said he was tired of seeing their names in the paper and people not knowing the truth.
"Everything's going by what Jake's saying," Gonzalez said. "It's not based on anything other than what's coming out of his mouth."
State Desk on 12/05/2017