4:24 p.m. —
A flashing blue light that indicates the jury has a question — or hopefully a verdict — came on just minutes after the 12 women returned to their deliberations briefly, causing a stir in the courtroom where supporters and reporters were waiting for a verdict in the corruption trial of suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis.
No decision, the court personnel said. The jury wanted to stop work at 4:45 p.m. and return Friday morning.
Thursday was a short day for the jury as one of the jurors had an appointment in Magistrate Court in Fayette County, an issue with a non-paying tenant.
They started at 12:30 p.m. Thursday to give the juror time to follow up on her attempts to evict a tenant.
3:59 p.m. — Jurors returned to their deliberations after hearing a replay of a secretly recorded conversation during which suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis complained about the owners of companies with county contracts not responding to his calls soliciting campaign contributions.
In a Sept. 28, 2012, meeting with star prosecution witness Kelvin Walton, who was DeKalb’s purchasing director, Ellis complained about companies that didn’t respond to his campaign calls.
Ellis said the county should not be doing business with a vendor who did not return his calls requesting help retiring his campaign debt.
“He don’t even know my platform,” Ellis said of the conversation he eventually had with Brandon Cummings, co-owner of Power and Energy Services in Austell. “He does business with us and he was asking me why he should give to my political campaign.”
Ellis also complained on the recording about another vendor who hung up on him when he asked for a contribution.
According to recordings played during the trial, Ellis was frustrated that his calls asking for campaign contributions were ignored.
Ellis said he didn’t think the county should be doing business with vendors who did not return the CEO’s calls.
“I’m your customer,” Ellis said about the vendors.
“They can not give (a political contribution) but they can’t be not returning phone calls,” Ellis said.
Three extortion counts concern those companies, Austell-based Power and Energy Services and National Property Institute in Ellenwood in south DeKalb County.
3:29 p.m. — Jurors asked to hear again a portion one of the secret recordings used in the corruption case against suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis.
Specifically, the 12 women wanted to hear a recording prosecution star witness Kelvin Walton, then the head of the county’s purchasing department, made on Sept. 28, 2012, of a conversation about the responsiveness on two vendors, whom Ellis had asked for a campaign contribution.
Three extortion counts concern those companies, Austell-based Power and Energy Services and National Property Institute in Ellenwood
2:45 p.m. — The jurors deliberating the corruption case against suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis sent out their second note in two days that they have been unable to reach verdicts on "all" the 13 charges.
The judge told them to keep working, and reminded attorneys that the jury has been deliberating only 35 hours even though it has been over eight days.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys questioned whether the jury was saying in its note that it had not reached verdicts on any of the 13 counts or if it had agreed on some but was stuck on others.
Judge Courtney Johnson said it was too early to ask the 12 women for specifics because she didn’t want to give them the impression that it would be okay to reach verdicts on some of the counts rather than all of them.
The judge said, “if we get another note like this tomorrow, I’d be inclined to” ask the all-female jury if it has agreed on any of the felony charges of extortion, theft by taking, bribery or perjury or the two misdemeanor counts of assigning duties to government employees to benefit a political campaign.
12:47 p.m. — The 12-woman jury hearing the corruption trial of DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis began an eighth day of deliberations a little later than usual today, starting at 12:30 p.m. because one of the jurors had to be in Magistrate Court over an issue with one of her tenants.
They reported directly to the jury room, bypassing the courtroom where the trial began on Sept. 8 with jury selection.
Ellis is accused of strong-arming vendors to contribute to his 2012 re-election campaign. He is charged with 13 counts with extortion, theft by taking, assigning government workers to duties to benefit a political campaign, bribery and perjury, for allegedly lying to a special purpose grand jury investigating government corruption.
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