Page 11 - Florida Sentinel 8-25-17

State
Corrine Brown Trial: No Decision Made In Brown's Motions For Acquittal Or New Trial
JACKSONVILLE --- The decision as to whether or not former Florida Congress- woman Corrine Brown will receive an acquittal or a new trial in her federal fraud case has not been made.
U. S. Judge Timothy Corrigan announced in federal court on Monday that he is taking "serious matters into serious consid- eration" after Brown's de- fense team and federal prosecutors argued over Brown's motions.
Both motions were filed back in June, one month after a 12-member jury found Brown guilty of 18 out of 22 felony counts, which included conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, lying on financial disclosure forms, impeding IRS tax laws and filing false tax re- turns.
The jury found her guilty of using a bogus charity, One Door for Education, as a per- sonal slush fund to enrich herself, her family, her for- mer chief of staff Ronnie Simmons and the presi- dent of One Door, Carla Wiley. They also found her guilty of lying on her tax forms.
Motion For Acquittal
In her motion for acquit- tal, Brown's defense attor- ney, James W. Smith, III, repeatedly stressed that the testimonies of Simmons and Wiley admit their guilt in the case, but never faulted Brown for any wrongdoing.
Smith said that despite evidence, witnesses and doc- uments, the government failed to prove in court that Brown showed any crimi- nal intent to commit fraud. Instead, he said Brown was a victim of "guilt by associa- tion" when it came to One Door.
Smith also said Brown was upfront with donors about how the funds raised through One Door would be used to help sponsor events held by the charity. He said she didn't misrepresent their
CORRINE BROWN
intentions and didn't say the funds would solely be used to help fund scholarships for students.
During the trial, federal prosecutors revealed that One Door only gave about $1,200 for student scholar- ships out of more than $833,000 raised. They also revealed documents where she used funds to attend events such as President (Barack) Obama's inau- guration, attending Bey- once concerts, as well as going to Jacksonville Jaguar football games.
Prosecutors said donor testimony revealed how they were clueless that Brown was profiting from the or- ganization, which they also said was a misrepresentation in itself.
Prosecutors also ques- tioned that if Brown wasn't a founder of One Door, why would she possess blank checks, as supported by Simmons' testimony.
Motion For New Trial Brown also filed a mo- tion for a new trial, arguing that Judge Corrigan didn't make a proper basis when it came to removing a juror
from the process.
During
Juror No. 13 reportedly made comments about how the Holy Spirit told him that Brown was innocent. Cor- rigan dismissed Juror No. 13, stating the Holy Spirit was "an external force" in his decision making.
deliberation
deliberations,
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 11-A