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Documents revealed on eve of DeKalb CEO Ellis’ trial

By Mark Niesse
Sept 15, 2014

Court orders released Monday reveal a series of potentially damaging decisions against suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis.

Superior Court Judge Courtney Johnson has ruled that Ellis can’t claim he was set up and can’t speculate about the racial biases of a vendor Ellis is accused of seeking bribes from.

About 38 documents were unsealed Monday by Johnson following a legal request by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action news.

Johnson also found that Ellis’ defense team committed violations by not turning over thousands of pages of documents.

In addition, Johnson allowed prosecutors to present recordings of Ellis discussing whether “six-figure” county employees had contributed to his re-election campaign.

Ellis is fighting criminal allegations that he shook down county contractors for campaign donations.

Please return to AJC.com and MyAJC.com for updates.

About the Author

Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.

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