The bare-knuckled litigation involving the political corruption prosecution of suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis has become even more heated.
In court filings this week, Ellis fought back against the district attorney who’s prosecuting him and the man who succeeded him as the county’s top official, leveling accusations of financial wrongdoing and hypocrisy.
Ellis’ legal team accused District Attorney Robert James and interim CEO Lee May of essentially committing the same crime Ellis is being prosecuted for: theft of county property. James and May used county employees to raise money at a gala that was nothing more than a political event used to promote their own agendas, a strongly worded court motion alleges.
DeKalb prosecutors and Ellis’ lawyers have been exchanging barbs since before Ellis was indicted in June on charges of extortion, conspiracy, theft and coercion. Ellis’ court filings this week should only exacerbate the acrimony on both sides.
Craig Gillen, Ellis’ lead defense attorney, declined to comment. A spokesman for the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office said James had no comment. May, through a county spokesman, could not be reached for comment.
Ellis is asking Superior Court Judge Courtney Johnson to dismiss the indictment or to disqualify the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office from trying his case.
One motion, which accuses the District Attorney’s Office of selective prosecution, notes that Ellis is indicted for theft of county property by getting employees, during normal working hours, to help him raise campaign cash.
Ellis used Kelvin Walton, the county’s head of purchasing and contracting, to create lists of vendors who had been awarded contracts so Ellis could use that information to solicit campaign contributions, the indictment alleges. The lists were created by three county employees.
James and May used eight county employees to raise money and coordinate the 2013 Senior Ball, a county function that was held June 8 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Ellis’ motion says. At that time, May served as a county commissioner representing District 5.
James and May tapped a political fundraiser, Candace Franklin, to solicit money for the Senior Ball from vendors and companies who do business with the county. The court motion attached numerous email exchanges between county employees and Franklin in the weeks leading up to the event.
The Senior Ball was a black-tie affair for about 1,000 county residents ages 60 and older. Its brochure said organizers wanted to educate seniors about the precautions they can take to minimize theft, abuse and exploitation.
But Ellis’ motion calls the gala “a thinly veiled formal political affair.”
The ball was funded with $25,500 in contributions from vendors and companies that do business with DeKalb. Companies that gave $10,000 got two seats at James and May’s table, according to one fundraising brochure. The event also received $21,356 from the District Attorney’s Office’s forfeiture funds account, Ellis’ court motion says.
“It is abundantly clear that DA James entered into a conspiracy with Commissioner May to commit theft of property in DeKalb County,” the motion says. “In essence, DA James and Commissioner May used DeKalb County’s personnel and money for self-promotion.”
Yet James and May have not been investigated or charged with this crime, while Ellis has been indicted for similar conduct, the motion says. “The state’s choice to proceed against defendant Ellis while declining to charge others who appear equally culpable is hypocritical and unjust,” it states.
The motion also alleges that the state has chosen to “single out” Ellis and prosecute him because of his “conflicting political views” and the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office’s personal animosity toward the suspended CEO.
The court motions disclose that, beginning in August 2012, investigators began using informants to secretly record meetings and telephone communications involving Ellis and others. In all, the motions say, investigators intercepted more than 1,400 of Ellis’ phone communications. The lawyers also say they have reviewed more than 1,600 recordings of the suspended CEO’s conversations.
The motions are requesting that these communications be suppressed for a number of reasons. On some occasions, for example, investigators captured privileged conversations between Ellis and his lawyer at the time, Decatur attorney Keith Adams, the motions say.
Prosecutors also made misrepresentations when asking a judge last year to intercept Ellis’ phone conversations and text messages and when obtaining warrants to search Ellis’ Stone Mountain home and his county office, the motions say.
The “vast majority” of the allegations used to obtain the warrants come from Walton, the county’s head of purchasing and contracts, the motions say. But the state failed to inform the court of Walton’s “total lack of truthfulness and veracity as evidenced by the state’s own criminal investigation,” the motions say.
Instead, Ellis’ lawyers said, the secret recordings “clearly show that CEO Ellis deferred to his staff the task of selecting members for selection committees for county work. He wanted to know what the rules were and wanted them applied consistently.”
If Ellis is to be criticized, the motions say, “it would be for deferring too much to … Walton regarding the purchasing and procurement selection process.”
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