Suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday to up to 15 years in prison for perjury and trying to extort a campaign contribution from a county vendor.
Ellis is to appear at 9 a.m. before Judge Courtney Johnson, who has wide discretion in the sentencing.
“The range is from zero to 15” years in prison, said former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, who was on Ellis’ defense team the first time he was tried on the same perjury and attempted extortion charges. “There is the potential for 15.”
A gag order remains in place, preventing anyone connected from the case from commenting.
Ellis is expected to appeal last week’s conviction; his lawyer has asked the judge for a hearing on an appeal bond, so the politician could be free while he challenges his conviction. If the conviction stands, it could mean the end of his political career.
Ellis, who is suspended without pay, was found guilty last week of one count of attempted theft by extortion and three counts of perjury for lying to a special grand jury. The jury acquitted him of five charges of bribery, extortion and attempted extortion.
It was the second time he was tried on the charges. A jury last year could not reach a verdict so Johnson declared a mistrial, setting up this year’s retrial.
“Anyone facing a sentence after two jury trials should be very concerned,” Morgan said.
Johnson ordered Ellis taken into custody moments after the jury announced its verdict.
An appeal cannot be filed until Ellis is sentenced, so no bond can be set until then, Morgan said. But he predicted Ellis’ appeal will be successful.
“There are more errors made in that case than a third-grader taking the SAT,” Morgan said. “There are so many problems with that case, with that conviction. … The problem with the perjury (charge) is he was subpoenaed to come to a grand jury and was told he was not a target of an investigation and then he was questioned as if he were a target without the benefit of counsel.”
Meanwhile, interim DeKalb CEO Lee May remains in charge of the county’s government, as he has since Gov. Nathan Deal suspended Ellis in July 2013.
Ellis can not be removed from office until a “final conviction,” which Georgia law defines as having exhausted appeals. If that happens, the job would become vacant and a special election would be held to choose a replacement CEO until Ellis’ term expires at the end of 2016.
The DeKalb Commission’s presiding officer, who is currently Commissioner Larry Johnson, would become the county’s interim CEO until after the election.
Ellis’ appeals could continue to the point where a special election won’t be held and May remains in the role for the next year and a half. A special election is only called for if the vacancy in the CEO’s office occurs more than 180 days before the end of Ellis’ term on Dec. 31, 2016, according to DeKalb’s Organizational Act. In that case, the position would be filled during the regularly scheduled November 2016 election.
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