Ex-New Orleans worker pleads guilty

NEW ORLEANS -- A former city employee pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking kickbacks for city contracts, the first closed case in federal and city investigations of alleged corruption at City Hall.

Wallace Schief, chief engineer for the city's property management department, took payments totaling $15,500 from the owner of G&M Electric Sales Co., according to a statement Schief signed before a federal judge. He is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 18.

The city's investigation has resulted in more than 60 arrests, most of them taxi cab drivers accused of bribing city workers for permits. The probe began after Mayor Ray Nagin was inaugurated in May; the FBI's started investigating more than a year earlier.