Shirlington Limousine sues as DHS decides to cut it out
By Mike Soraghan
Posted: 04/10/07 08:28 PM [ET]
A Washington transportation company that was questioned in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham investigation is on the verge of losing its contract with the Department of Homeland Security, but has gone to federal court to keep it.
Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc. filed a lawsuit last week accusing the department of “caving” to “political pressures” surrounding the Cunningham case by illegally changing its shuttle-services contract to exclude Shirlington.
“DHS crafted a procurement strategy around Shirlington so as to preclude it from competition,” claims the suit, which also refers to Shirlington’s owner, Christopher Baker. “Despite some people at DHS coming to his defense, apparently the procurement operation has succumbed to political pressure.”
Department officials say they changed the contract because it made business sense, not because of Cunningham or the questions Congress raised about Shirlington.
Shirlington became the target of congressional probes last spring when press reports linked the company to the Cunningham scandal. The firm had been awarded a five-year contract, renewable each year under a program limiting competition to low-income areas. In total, the company had contracts with the department worth $25 million over six years.
Most of the contract was not for “limousine” services, but for shuttling the department’s headquarters employees around in vans. Shirlington did provide drivers for the department’s car service sedans. Shirlington’s lawsuit echoes congressional staffers and department officials in saying that the company has fulfilled its existing contract ably.
But a bribery indictment against Brent R. Wilkes, a California businessman, said he paid to have Cunningham ferried around Washington by Shirlington as part of more than $700,000 worth of perks intended to get him to steer lucrative federal contracts to companies Wilkes controlled.
And Mitchell J. Wade, a defense contractor who has admitted bribing the former congressman, told prosecutors that Wilkes had an arrangement with Shirlington Limousine, which in turn had a relationship with at least one escort service, according to the Wall Street Journal.
House Democratic investigators would eventually determine there were irregularities in the handling of the contract, but no wrongdoing. They also decided the evidence showed no prostitutes were transported on DHS time.
Cunningham resigned in 2005 after pleading guilty to taking bribes from Wade. He is serving a prison term of up to eight years.
In an interview, Baker said he did nothing wrong in his interaction with Cunningham, Wilkes and Wade, or in his performance of the Homeland Security contract. He said he became a scapegoat in the Cunningham scandal and was a convenient target for Democrats in election-year politics.
“It’s like someone has an axe to grind and they’re just going to make it happen,” Baker said. “I feel like one of the Rutgers girls. All this happens, and now I’m treated like I’m a pimp.”
Baker, who testified before a grand jury in the Cunningham case, said he started driving Wilkes in 1994. He said he drove Cunningham on occasion, but that he usually saw Cunningham driving himself in a green sport-utility vehicle.
Most of the time, he said, “I saw Mr. Cunningham in his green truck. On certain occasions I drove him to the Hill or to his apartment. Duke Cunningham was a self-sufficient gentleman. He liked to drive himself.”
He said he believes Cunningham and Wilkes started off as decent men steered into making mistakes.
“I believe Duke Cunningham to be a good man who made stupid decisions,” he said. “He has been a supporter of me as an African-American businessman.”
Of Wilkes, he said, “He was a winer and a diner. He liked to take people to eat. If a young lady gets in the car, or he asks us to pick up a young lady, we don’t know who it is. We’re drivers.”
As for any prostitution occurring, he said, “It might have happened. I don’t know anything about it. And from driving Brent Wilkes, I question it happening.”
He said he continues to believe that Wilkes was a decent person until he got involved with Wade.
“Brent Wilkes has morals,” Baker said. “He crossed his morals getting involved with Mitch Wade. Mitch Wade had a bad spirit.”
He said he could count “on half my hand” the number of times he drove Wade. He said he tried to stay away from him.
Shirlington has denied any involvement with prostitution. Yet the San Diego Union-Tribune cited a letter from Baker’s lawyer, Bobby Stafford, saying that Baker “provided limousine services for Mr. Wilkes for whatever entertainment he had in the Watergate” from the company’s founding in 1990 through the early 2000s. The letter also stated Baker was “never in attendance in any party where any women were being used for prostitution purposes.” Company officials say Stafford was not authorized to speak about those matters, and he made errors.
The lawsuit notes that Baker “was never charged with any wrongdoing whatsoever, adding that he “was dragged by the press ‘feeding frenzy’ into the fray.” The company’s lawyers said it turned over documents and cooperated with investigators.
The revelations about Shirlington Limousine sparked congressional inquiries and hearings in May 2006.
At that time, it came out that Baker has a criminal record, including misdemeanor and felony charges levied between 1979 and 1989. Baker said he admits his mistakes and has turned his life around in the ensuing decades.
Shortly after the congressional hearings, in June 2006, the department decided to overhaul its shuttle contract with Shirlington.
DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie said the new department was trying to fulfill its mission of integrating its diverse components. He said it was not intended to specifically exclude Shirlington from the contract.
While working out plans for the new contract, the department gave Shirlington a temporary contract in September. Shirlington claims the temporary contract came after “several rounds of negotiations colored by threats from DHS.”
Shirlington’s lawsuit, filed April 4 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, focuses on the department’s decision not to limit competition to small businesses in poor areas, called “HUBzones.” When Shirlington sought to bid under a different small-business set aside, a series of errors prevented its bid from being accepted, a circumstance that is also being contested. Currently, Shirlington is out of the running for the larger contract.
The company is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking DHS from awarding the new contract. No hearing has been scheduled.
