Former Lawrenceville gas utility official charged with racketeering

“The City of Lawrenceville has been cooperating with the District Attorney’s Office throughout the investigation and is completing a review of its purchasing policies and a forensic audit to ensure that taxpayer funds were not misused,” city spokesperson Melissa Hardegree said in a news release.

Morris and Griffin worked together from January 2024 to March of this year to award gas pipeline contracts to Griffin’s company in exchange for at least 30% of the profits, prosecutors said in the news release from Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson. The contracts were worth an estimated $11 million over four years, according to the indictment.

Griffin’s company had no experience in gas pipeline work, the indictment said. Morris helped Griffin comply with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in order to bid on Lawrenceville’s contract to install new gas mains and service lines, prosecutors said.

The two communicated more than 50 times during the bid period, in violation of bidding rules, and went over Griffin’s submission together so his bid would come in lowest, the indictment said.

Under Morris’ guidance, Lawrenceville also canceled two contracts with other companies for gas line relocation and replacement and awarded them to Griffin’s company, prosecutors said. Morris’ son, Kyle, and brother, William, left one of the other companies for Griffin’s company, according to the indictment.

In his capacity as a city official, Joshua Morris drafted an operating agreement that gave a share of the profits to a shell company he formed the day of the City Council vote on the contract for new gas mains, the indictment said. He also signed a document certifying that his son had passed a required safety test, according to the indictment.

Before Morris resigned from the city in March, he helped W.L. Griffin Company at job sites, and the company issued him a credit card, according to the indictment.

“Public officials are held to a high standard,” Gwinnett District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in the news release. “We intend to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.”

Lawrenceville’s natural gas department serves about 50,000 customers in Gwinnett, Rockdale and Walton counties. It is the second-largest municipally owned gas department in Georgia.