Notes from the Burrell Ellis trial: Day 9 of testimony
The DeKalb County CEO has been suspended with pay since he was indicted two years ago on charges of extortion, bribery and perjury. Prosecutors say he tried to strong-arm county vendors into giving to his 2012 re-election campaign by threatening their lucrative contracts with DeKalb.
This is Ellis’ second trial on the charges. Last fall, the first one ended in a mistrial because jurors could not agree on a verdict after 11 days of deliberations.
In court Friday:
Proceedings ended early, with Ellis being the only witness called because the judge had other matters set for the afternoon.
Much of Ellis’ testimony centered around recordings that were played for jurors earlier this week. The recordings were secretly made by DeKalb’s former director of purchasing and contracting, Kelvin Walton, who made a deal with prosecutors that meant he would not face perjury charges. Friday, Ellis gave context for the discussions and again denied that he pressured vendors.
Ellis said while he made several phone calls to Power and Energy Services, an Austell company that had a contract to maintain Department of Watershed Management generators, “I was not pressuring Power and Energy to contribute to my political campaign.”
“I never once said don’t do business with someone who doesn’t give me a campaign contribution,” he said. “I gave no directive to cut the contract.”
Ellis also testified that he did become angry when he couldn’t get a vendor to return his phone calls.
“The CEO is the face of the county and the county is the customer. But the CEO is ultimately the face of that customer,” Ellis said Friday.
Coming up:
Ellis will continue testifying Monday. The judges has told jurors they can expect to begin deliberations Tuesday or Wednesday.
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