A Regional Transportation District senior manager took $125,000 to $145,000 in bribes over six years and ensured contract renewals for a Commerce City businessman now convicted of tax fraud, according to court filings by federal prosecutors.

The manager also tried to influence a contract to sell RTD buses for the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver by releasing technical specifications that were not yet public, a court filing states.

Kenneth Hardin, who faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, is charged with accepting $5,100 in bribes made in four payments in spring and summer of 2014.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen Rhyne in a recent filing said the indictment covers only a small portion of the bribes Hardin took and only those payments the government was able to record Hardin taking.

The prosecutor is asking a federal judge to allow evidence about additional bribes to provide critical context for the jury at trial.

Hardin was the senior manager of RTD’s civil rights division, which was responsible for putting in place the agency’s disadvantaged business enterprise and minority contracting programs.

Hardin has resigned from his RTD job, where he was paid $117,285 annually.

The prosecutor’s filing says a cooperating witness helped the government build its case against Hardin. The document does not name that witness, but other filings identify him as Lucilious Ward, a convicted payroll tax cheat who went undercover to help prosecutors build their case against Hardin.

“Defendant Hardin’s long history of taking monthly bribes from the cooperating defendant from 2008 to 2014 is inextricably intertwined with the evidence in this case,” Rhyne said in the filing.

Ward was one of RTD’s Access-a-Ride contractors providing bus service to the disabled. He was indicted and pleaded guilty last year to dodging payment of more than $6 million in payroll taxes his Commerce City company owed the IRS. Nearly all of the taxes came due after he was awarded the $23.8 million RTD contract in 2007.

He became a cooperating witness for the government following his criminal woes and went undercover to help investigators record bribery payments, other court filings reveal. Federal prosecutors have asked to delay his sentencing until after his testimony in two government bribery cases is completed.

Ward has been identified as a cooperating witness in another government bribery case against Larry Stevenson, a former supervisor in Denver’s excise and licenses department. Stevenson, who was the best man in Mayor Michael Hancock’s wedding, is accused in that Denver District court indictment of taking $5,000 of bribes from Ward.

In exchange, Stevenson allegedly agreed to parlay his relationship with the mayor to help Ward secure a portion of a parking contract at Denver International Airport.

That contract was never awarded to Ward.

The mayor has denounced the actions of Stevenson, who last week was fired from his city job that paid $89,808 annually. Hancock has denied any knowledge of Stevenson’s alleged bribery scheme.

Stevenson and Hardin have declined to comment, but their lawyers are contesting the criminal charges.

Recorded statements

Rhyne said she wants to admit as evidence in the federal case statements Hardin made to the FBI in which he admitted he had been taking money from the witness for years. She also said the witness will detail those payments for the jury. In addition, portions of audio and video recordings of meetings between Hardin and Ward will show that additional payments were made, Rhyne said.

The prosecutors said in the filing that Hardin actually sought out Ward again after the businessman’s indictment on tax fraud charges and solicited extra bribe money in exchange for ensuring Ward would receive contract renewals.

“In essence defendant Hardin saw no risk because he had been taking similar bribes without consequence since 2008,” the filing states.

In one meeting recorded by the government, Ward spelled out that he had paid as much as $140,000 in bribery cash over the years to Hardin.

“I appreciate what you’re doing over the years,” Ward said in that April 30, 2014, conversation, according to the government. “I’ve got to say it’s been money well spent when we do things. I don’t have a problem with it.”

Hardin, in response, replied, “Yeah,” and nodded in agreement, the government said.

During that meeting, according to the filing, Hardin stated: “I’ve hung in the gap. I’ve done, I do a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Lot of stuff has come up. A lot of time I — you know I’ve hung myself out there and you know a lot of stuff has come up, and they wanted to take stuff away, and I’ve stood in there and made them not do it.”

Monthly bribes

The prosecution filing states that in exchange for bribery cash, Hardin successfully lobbied RTD to renew Ward’s Access-a-Ride contract in 2011, 2102 and 2013. It also states that Hardin tried to convince the agency to award another Access-a-Ride contract to Ward’s company that would begin in April 2014, but was unsuccessful.

Hardin and Ward also discussed efforts by Ward to act as a broker to help another company obtain the contract to sell RTD buses for use on the 16th Street Mall, according to the filing.

In a May 15, 2014, meeting recorded by the FBI, Hardin provided Ward a 29-page document that included the technical specifications that would help secure the bus contract, prosecutors said.

Ward then paid a bribe of $1,000 that had been provided by the FBI, the filing stated.

From 2008 to 2014, Ward paid Hardin monthly bribes, sometimes reaching as much as $20,000, the government said.

Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or twitter.com/chrisosher