The wife of suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis was called to testify to the character and the trustworthiness of her husband of almost 14 years.
Both are “excellent,” Philippa Ellis said.
In the hours before she stepped into the witness stand, there was extensive debate about calling Philippa Ellis. Prosecutors worried that she would go beyond the questions asked, based on how she testified when her husband was tried last year on the same charges.
Ellis is charged with extortion, bribery and perjury for allegedly pressuring county vendors to give to his 2012 re-election campaign and for lying to a special grand jury about his role in DeKalb’s contracting.
His wife was limited to speaking only to his character and her answers were short.
Since she was to be called as a witness, Philippa Ellis has waited on a bench just outside the courtroom door every day since the trial started with jury selection on June 1. Even after she testified, Philippa Ellis was told she could not sit in the courtroom for the rest of the trial because she could be called to testify again.
After speaking briefly about her husband, Philippa Ellis also was asked about the reputation of a key prosecution witness, former head of county purchasing and contracts Kelvin Walton. Walton agreed to secretly record Ellis during discussions of vendors and their reluctance to give to his campaign because prosecutors said they might charge him with lying to a grand jury.
The jury heard several hours of those secret recordings.
When asked if she knew Walton, she answered: “I thought I was familiar with him. Now I’m not.”
Prosecutor Lawanda Hodges had complained about Philippa Ellis’ testimony last year in Ellis’ first trial, which ended without a verdict. Hodges said Philippa Ellis insisted on giving information such as the states where she is licensed to practice law, how many children they have and how they met and dated.
Judge Courtney Johnson repeatedly told Ellis’ attorney to speak to the wife about what she could say
Defense attorneys told the judge Ellis would be called next to testify in his own defense. First lawyers on both sides need to agree to the parameters of his testimony.
Ellis, a real estate lawyer, is charged with nine felonies that could mean an end to his legal and polittical careers if he is convicted. Prosecutors say Ellis strong-armed vendors for contributions to his 2012 re-election campaign and threatened to pull their contracts with the county if they did not give. Ellis denies those charges and said he only told department heads to end contracts if vendors did not respond to his repeated telephone calls. Though he was calling to solicit campaign donations, Ellis said those vendors should have called him back regardless of his reason because he was head of the county.
This is the second time Ellis has been tried on these charges. In the first trial, the jury could not reach a verdict after 11 days of deliberations, setting up the retrial that began with jury selection on June 1.
The prosecution rested his case on Wednesday, having called 23 witnesses and played hours of secretly recorded conversations of Ellis discussing vendors with the former head of contracts and purchasing for the county.
Ellis has been suspended with pay since he was indicted two years ago. If he is acquitted, he can immediately resume his duties in the $153,000-a-year job running the state’s fourth largest county.
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