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U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown changing lawyers; preparations for fraud trial pushed back
By Steve Patterson Tue, Aug 9, 2016 @ 6:14 am | updated Tue, Aug 9, 2016 @ 8:02 pm
Preparations for U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown’s fraud trial were pushed back another week Tuesday as she moved toward signing up a new attorney.
U.S. Magistrate James R. Klindt told Brown last month that any counsel changes needed to be made before a hearing he had scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, so her team would be ready for a planned October trial.
But during that hearing, Tampa-based defense attorney Greg Kehoe told Klindt he was still working out details about replacing her previous counsel, Bill Sheppard and his firm. Kehoe didn’t elaborate, saying “there are just certain things that have to be addresed internally.”
Brown’s chief of staff and co-defendant, Ronnie Simmons, is also switching attorneys and expects to have new counsel by Friday, Klindt was told.
Klindt set another hearing for the coming Tuesday afternoon, but said that could be canceled if attorneys have filed papers that lock them into representing Brown and Simmons long-term.
The judge didn’t change the scheduled October start of the trial, but said that could change once the attorneys are settled. The attorney who represented Simmons at the hearing, Daniel Smith, said afterward it would be “unrealistic” to try to keep the current schedule.
Smith said he thought springtime might be a fair time frame for the trial, adding new attorneys would have to study “voluminous” stacks of records to get up to speed.
Prosecutors last month gave the defense more than 77,000 pages of documents, all potential evidence that investigators assembled to make a case against the 12-term Democratic congresswoman, a political powerhouse facing two challengers in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. As they did at Brown’s first court appearance, a few supporters carried signs outside the federal courthouse denouncing the prosecution as a witch hunt.
Brown and Simmons were charged last month in a 24-count indictment that accuses both of enriching themselves by misusing their government positions.
Most of the case revolves around money collected for a Virginia organization, One Door for Education, that Brown championed as a charity trying to help young people. One Door was never recognized by the IRS as a charity.
The indictment claimed a lot of the roughly $800,000 donated to the organization was used like a slush fund that benefited Brown, Simmons and One Door’s president, Carla Wiley.
Wiley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in March and is cooperating with prosecutors.
Brown and Simmons have pleaded not guilty to charges that include mail and wire fraud, conspiracy and scheming to conceal material facts, a lawyerly term for lying on financial disclosure reports they were required to file.
If they’re convicted of all charges, both Brown and Simmons could each face prison sentences exceeding 350 years.
Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263
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