Continuing coverage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will provide the latest developments from suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis’ retrial as it continues. You can find video and audio reports, interactive online features and updates from the retrial at MyAJC.com.
The jury deciding the fate DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis deliberated for seven hours Thursday but didn’t appear close to reaching a verdict.
Ellis 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.
It was jurors’ first full day of discussing the case.
The jury sent notes to Superior Court Judge Courtney Johnson asking to review evidence and state law. They spoke about the case privately in the jury room for the most of the day.
This is Ellis’ second trial on the charges. Last fall, the first one ended in a mistrial because jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict after 11 days of deliberations.
In court Thursday
The jury got off to a rough start when one tearful juror said she felt attacked when another juror criticized her for being late. The juror told Johnson she could continue on, and the judge assured her that none of the other jurors can vote her off.
“We’re not on ‘Survivor.’ We’re in DeKalb County,” Johnson said to attorneys before talking with the juror.
Later in the day, jurors asked to review an email sent by Joanne Wise, one of Ellis’ alleged victims, after she felt pressured for campaign contributions.
Wise, a lobbyist for Ciber, testified that Ellis threatened to end the IT company’s contract with DeKalb and tell her bosses that she was to blame. After Wise’s phone call with Ellis, she then sent an email to her boss recounting their conversation.
Jurors returned to the courtroom to re-read the email. Near the end of the day, they asked to view it again Friday morning.
Coming up
The jury of six women and six men will return to court for their third day of deliberations.
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