Former city of Atlanta executive Mitzi Bickers had two years shaved off her prison sentence Wednesday as wire fraud counts were cut from her convictions for taking millions of dollars in bribes from city contractors.
Bickers was given a new sentence of 12 years in prison for her remaining convictions on three counts of money laundering and single counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and filing a false tax return.
The city’s former director of human services has already spent two-and-a-half years behind bars since being found guilty of nine federal charges in 2022. Prosecutors accused her of pocketing about $3 million in bribes from businessmen she helped to secure city contracts worth around $17 million.
“I didn’t make all the right decisions,” Bickers said in court Wednesday in front of many of her family members and friends. “I don’t want anyone to think that I’m not accepting full responsibility for my own actions.”
Bickers is one of almost a dozen former Atlanta officials and contractors sentenced to prison in a sprawling City Hall corruption investigation that included pay-for-play contracting. Hers is the longest prison sentence.
Prosecutors conceded the four wire fraud counts that Bickers was found guilty of must be dismissed under recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court which limit the scope of federal wire fraud charges.
Bickers’ attorneys said the wire fraud counts were central to the case and asked that she be resentenced to six and a half years in prison.
“Ms. Bickers has changed,” her attorney, Marissa Goldberg, told the judge Wednesday. “She’s got a new perspective. She’s been a model inmate.”
Bickers said being in prison has been life-changing and that she’d like to make a difference once released by helping inmates with their mental health and prison staff with professional development. She said she will also pay closer attention to business decisions.
“You have to be very, very careful because there’s this blurred line, if you will, between friendships and business,” Bickers said. “I would certainly pay much more attention to my own business and make sure that I’m dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts.”
Prosecutor Nathan Kitchens said he took Bickers’ acknowledgment of responsibility Wednesday to heart but that she still seemed to be minimizing her crimes. He said her lies and deceit cast a shadow over hundreds of hardworking and honest city employees.
“Respectfully, this case was not about undotted Is or uncrossed Ts,” he said.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones said it would be unfair to again sentence Bickers to 14 years in prison after the dismissal of the wire fraud counts, though he did not consider those charges central to the case. He said Bickers’ bribery and money laundering convictions reflect “very bad” conduct.
Jones declined Bickers’ request to significantly reduce the $2.9 million she was ordered to pay in restitution.
A pastor and community leader, Bickers was Atlanta’s director of human services between 2010 and 2013. She was appointed by former Mayor Kasim Reed in exchange for helping him win election.
Prosecutors said Bickers pocketed about $3 million in bribes from contractors in exchange for helping them get about $17 million worth of city contracts for work including bridge repairs, sidewalk maintenance and emergency snow removal. She used the bribe money to buy a home and other things that were forfeited through the case, prosecutors said.
Bickers was indicted in March 2018 on two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, three counts of money laundering, four counts of wire fraud and single counts of tampering with an informant and filing a false tax return. She pleaded not guilty the same month and was granted bond.
Prosecutors added a bribery charge in October 2018, which Bickers also pleaded not guilty to. At trial in March 2022, the jurors found Bickers guilty of all but the bribery and tampering charges and one of the conspiracy charges.
In September 2022, Bickers was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Bickers’ convictions on all but the wire fraud counts in August 2024, recognizing that prosecutors planned to drop those charges. The case was remanded for resentencing.
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