The against Burrell Ellis
Voters twice elected Burrell Ellis as DeKalb County’s chief executive, in 2008 and 2012, before an indictment accused him of shaking down county contractors for campaign contributions.
Ellis is charged with 13 crimes, including bribery, theft, extortion and perjury. If he’s found guilty on the bribery charge, he could face a 20-year maximum sentence. He has pleaded not guilty. His trial could last several weeks.
“I’ve done nothing wrong, and I would never ever ever do anything to violate the public trust,” Ellis said in a YouTube video in June 2013.
The indictment alleges that Ellis retaliated against at least three companies doing business with DeKalb that didn’t donate to his campaign: technology consultancy CIBER, equipment sales and service firm Power and Energy Services and real estate firm National Property Institute.
- CIBER lost out on a share of a $4 million consulting contract in 2012, according to county records.
- Power and Energy Services stopped receiving work under a contract worth up to $250,000, said the company's lawyer in a Feb. 14, 2013, letter to the county.
- The indictment claims Ellis told National Property Institute he didn't believe DeKalb County should be doing work with the company. The company had won a $1 million contract to rehab foreclosed homes in 2012.
- The bribery charge against Ellis is based on the allegation that he solicited $25,000 from a waste management company, Merrell Brothers, and that he could help with the company's ongoing negotiations for a $4 million county contract.
Complete coverage on MyAJC.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will bring our readers the most comprehensive coverage of the Burrell Ellis trial on our premium website. MyAJC.com/ellistrial
On the site:
- Read the latest AJC stories and analysis about this case
- Browse an interactive that identifies the key players in the trial
- Watch reporter Mark Niesse's video about the case and what's at stake for residents
- Read court documents and review a timeline of the corruption probe
How we got the story
Since DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis was indicted June 18, 2013, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has followed the money and investigated the workings of the county’s government. Through phone calls to more than 125 vendors, the AJC interviewed businesspeople who felt pressured by Ellis to contribute to his campaign. We also obtained campaign finance records, county contracts and internal emails to show how Ellis’ administration did business.
Although neither DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James nor defense attorneys were willing to discuss the case, citing a judge’s gag order, the AJC’s review of thousands of pages of court records shed light on how prosecutors have built their case. Those records included information about secret recordings, surprise searches and long-running investigations into government contracting.
The pursuit of campaign cash, the lifeblood of anyone seeking elected office, is central to the criminal case against suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, highlighting the thin line between a contribution and extortion.
Jury selection began Monday in the trial in which Ellis is fighting accusations that he extorted donations from county vendors. His defense attorneys will likely make the case that while he aggressively raised $1.5 million for his 2012 re-election, he didn’t break the law. Bringing in the most money is how a candidate wins, especially in a big media market with more than 700,000 residents.
But prosecutors will try to prove that Ellis took an illegal step too far by threatening to use his power as CEO against companies that didn’t contribute. Ellis allegedly told companies they needed to pay up if they didn’t want their business from the county to dry up.
The case is expected to bring into sharp focus the legal limits of a democratic electoral system that by its nature mixes money and politics.
In phone call after phone call, Ellis would make his pitch for a $2,500 contribution, the maximum allowed in Georgia for local offices.
“Listen, some people can make a campaign contribution, some people can’t make a contribution,” Ellis told a special grand jury in January 2013, according to court documents. “I have never and would never order that someone’s contract be terminated or that their contract not be renewed or any action be taken against anybody because of their decision.”
DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James’ prosecution team will use secret recordings and testimony from county vendors in an attempt to show Ellis connected political activities with his job of running the county’s government.
If Ellis linked political contributions to actions he would take as the county’s chief executive, he broke the law, said Patrick McDonough, a defense attorney who has represented Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, and former Gwinnett County Commissioner Kevin Kenerly.
“There’s nothing illegal about asking for a campaign contribution,” said McDonough of Andersen Tate & Carr. “Did he tie it to a contract or cancelling a contract? That would be inappropriate.”
Jeff Turner, the chairman of the Clayton County Commission, said elected officials must be careful when potential donors want something in return for their campaign contribution.
“There’s no way I’m going to promise anyone a vote on anything or a favor because they contributed to my campaign,” Turner said. “If a contribution comes with strings attached, that’s one I will forego. I don’t need any contribution that bad.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects the right to participate in democracy through political contributions, and that contributions can’t be regulated for the purpose of reducing the amount of money in politics.
Ellis collected much more money than his two unknown opponents, with his $1.5 million dwarfing the $165,656 and $5,582 raised by his rivals, according to campaign reports filed with the state. Ellis spent all but $198 of the money he raised, with at least $71,500 paying his campaign manager, Kevin Ross. Ellis won a second term with 60 percent of the vote in July 2012.
In an age when super PACs could swoop into any election and spend unlimited amounts of money, politicians have an incentive to pursue as much funding as possible, said attorney Doug Chalmers of The Political Law Group. While political action committees’ independent election spending isn’t restricted, Georgia caps individuals’ direct contributions to local candidates at $2,500 per election.
“You never know when you’re going to get attacked or what you’re going to get attacked with,” Chalmers said.
Candidates have to be persistent when asking for contributions if they want to survive in politics, said Bill Byrne, a former chairman of the Cobb County Commission. But unlike Ellis, Byrne said he avoided seeking money from companies that were under contract with the county.
Nearly 40 percent of the money Ellis raised from 2007 to 2012 came from firms that either worked or wanted to work for the county, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February 2013.
Donors inevitably want something in return for their money, and they usually give because either they believe a candidate is the best choice or they want access after the election, Byrne said.
“It’s implied that, ‘Hey, I’m giving to you, so you give to me,’” Byrne said. “That’s just the nature of politics, whether you’re running for a district commission seat or the president of the United States. It’s all about access and influence.”
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