Suspended DeKalb County CEO said Friday his issue, with some vendors was they didn't return his phone calls, showing a lack of respect for his office and the county that paid them significant amounts of money.
During four hours of testimony, Ellis insited that whether they gave a campaign contribution in 2012 had no bearing on his recommendations that DeKalb end some vendor’s contracts. Friday was an abbreviated court day so Ellis will resume his testimony on Monday.
On Friday morning, Ellis and his attorney replayed some of the recordings jurors have heard in nine days of testimony and then the CEO was asked to explain himself.
“They can not give but they can’t be not returning phone calls,” Ellis testified.
Prosecutors say Ellis pressured vendors for campaign contributions and then told staff to stop sending those vendors work if they did not respond to his political solicitation. Ellis has said vendors should return all the CEO’s messages, regardless of the reason he called.
“I never once said don’t do business with someone who doesn’t give me a campaign contribution,” Ellis said.
Ellis is charged with extortion, bribery and perjury. Prosecutors say he strong-armed vendors for campaign contributions, threatening their contracts with the county, and then lied to a special purpose grand jury when asked about his role in county contracting.
Ellis testified for an hour Thursday and spent four hours Friday explaining the secret recordings made by an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office and the former head of contracts and purchasing, Kelvin Walton who wore a wire so he would not be charged with lying to a special grand jury.
Friday Ellis also talked about campaign solicitations he made to Brandon Cummings, co-owner of Power and Energy Services, which had a contract to maintain Department of Watershed Management generators.
Ellis left several messages.
According to the nine-count indictment, Cummings was one of the vendors Ellis tried to extort.
Ellis had called Cummings several times in June 2012 to ask for a $2,500 donation before finally speaking to him. In one of those calls, an office worker told Ellis that Cummings “was not interested in your services.” According to other recordings played for the jury, Ellis was angry about the call and told Kelvin Walton, the head of DeKalb’s purchasing and contracting who also was recording Ellis, to stop calling Power and Energy Services and to instead use a second vendor who was until then the backup for Cummings’ business.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Ellis testified.
He said the problem had been resolved before he made another campaign solicitation call three months later, in September 2012.
Ellis said it was Cummings who brought up the call from June.
“He raised it and I addressed what happened in the past,” Ellis said. “I wanted to reassure him that was in the past.”
This is Ellis' second trial on these charges. A jury last year could not reach a verdict in 11 days of deliberations so Judge Courtney Johnson declared a mistrial.
Ellis has been suspended with pay since he was indicted two years ago. If he is acquitted, Ellis could immediately resumed the duties of CEO, which has a $153,000 annual salary.
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