Former Lawrenceville utilities official charged with racketeering in gas pipe contracts scheme

LAWRENCEVILLE – A former City of Lawrenceville official is among a duo named in a sweeping conspiracy that redirected multi-million-dollar pipe-laying contracts away from qualified potential vendors to companies he controlled.

Joshua Heath Morris, Lawrenceville’s former assistant gas director for operations, and businessman Westly Lee Griffin were indicted Wednesday on conspiracy to violate the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (R.I.C.O.) Act, bribery, and conspiracy in restraint of free and open competition in transactions with state or political subdivisions.

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

Lawrenceville city officials have been cooperating with the Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office.

“The City of Lawrenceville is aware of recent indictments by the District Attorney’s Office involving a former Natural Gas employee,” City of Lawrenceville spokeswoman Melissa Hardegree said. “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.”

Evidence presented to the Grand Jury shows that from January 2024 to March 2025, the two men conspired to drive contracts for gas pipeline work in Lawrenceville to Griffin-owned W.L. Griffin Company, LLC, a company with no prior experience in gas pipeline work. In exchange, the company would receive a significant payout from the estimated $11 million four-year contracts, from which the men could receive a 30-percent or more cut of the profits.

Morris showed Griffin how to become compliant with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in preparation for upcoming bids on the City’s On-demand Installation of New Gas Mains and Services contract. And the two frequently communicated – more than 50 times between March and July 2024 – in violation of the bid period non-collusion and non-communication clause that restricted contact with City personnel.

Also, while he was still working for the City of Lawrenceville, Morris and his son, Kyle Morris, formed the private company Natural Gas Consultation and Operation Services, LLC, with the intent of receiving a share of profits from the W.L. Griffin Contracts. Under his guidance, the City canceled previously awarded contracts for the Ozora Church Road and Buford Drive Replacement projects and awarded both contracts to W.L. Griffin. The companies that lost work as a result of this change were Southern Utility Group and Harrison & Harrison, a company that Kyle Morris left to join W.L. Griffin. 

Even before he left the City on March 14, 2025, Morris regularly assisted W.L. Griffin at job sites and the company issued him a corporate credit card.

In addition to the RICO, both Morris and Griffin were charged with bribery for the promise that W.L. Griffin would pay Morris and his company with the profits of the collusion. And the final charge accused the men of depriving other bidders, including Harrison & Harrison, Inc., Pike Gas Services, LLC, Southeast Connections, LLC, Southern Pipeline, Inc., and Utility Group, from access to the City Contracts.