Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors on Tuesday that a key witness is a liar and then they called him to testify against suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis in his public corruption trial.
A witness called in early afternoon Tuesday, former District Attorney’s Office investigator Clay Nix, testified that he couldn’t believe anything Kelvin Walton said. That’s why he had Walton, once head of purchasing and contracts for the count, wear a wire when he talked with Ellis just to guarantee that Walton was telling the truth.
Walton followed Nix to the witness stand and also admitted he lied to a special purpose grand jury.
“How can anybody believe anything you have to say?” asked prosecutor Lawanda Hodges.
“I’ve already lost my job. My reputation is tarnished. What more do I have to lose?” Walton said during the first day of testimony.
Ellis is charged with nine counts of extortion, bribery and perjury for allegedly pressuring vendors for campaign contributions and for allegedly lying to a special purpose grand jury investigating corruption in the county. This is the second time he has gone on trial because the first time ended in a mistrial because the all-woman jury could not agree on a verdict.
Prosecutors were about to play one of several secret recordings he made of his conversations with Ellis when Judge Courtney Johnson decided to send them home for the day so they could listen to the recording uninterrupted when court resumes Wednesday morning.
Earlier Tuesday, jurors got a peek into the grand jury room to hear Ellis’ recorded testimony that is at the core of the perjury charges against him.
A member of the now disbanded special purpose grand jury was the second witness called in the corruption retrial of Ellis to verify that the video played for jurors was Ellis’ grand jury testimony in January 2013.
Ellis swore before that special purpose grand jury, assembled to look into corruption in the DeKalb County, that he did not get involved in cancelling contracts.
“I don’t get involved in who gets work and who doesn’t get work,” Ellis said in the recording of his grand jury testimony that was played Tuesday.
Prosecutors say that was a lie.
Tuesday started with opening statements from prosecuting and defense attorneys and then the District Attorney’s Office called a lawyer with the state agency that handles campaign contributions followed by a member of the now-disbanded special grand jury
Attorney Bethany Whetzel explained Ellis’ expenditures and contributions on his 2012 campaign disclosure. Jimmy Davis was called to confirm the recording accuratleyy reflected what Ellis said 3 1/2 years ago when during his second appearance before the special purpose grand jury.
Earlier in the morning, prosecuting and defense attorneys used their opening statements to ask the men and women seated to hear Ellis’ case to return verdicts that speak the truth.
But their ideas of the truth are different.
Hodges said evidence will show Ellis is guilty of extortion, bribery and perjury. They say they will show Ellis tried to strong-arm county vendors into giving to his 2012 re-election campaign by threatening their lucrative contracts with DeKalb.
“Debt. Desperation. And deceit. … That is what the evidence will show you this is about,” Hodges said.
And Ellis is guilty of corruption, she said.
Defense attorney Craig Gillen had a different take; Ellis is not guilty and the government’s charges are based on lies and misunderstandings.
‘“Not one thin dime went into Burell Ellis’ pocket that wasn’t supposed to be there. Not a single, solitary dime,” Gillen said.
The judge has said testimony should take less than two weeks. It took three weeks to complete testimony in the case when it was tried last year.
Ellis has been suspended with pay for almost two years, while the charges have been pending. If he is convicted, he will lose the office he has won by election twice and he also could lose his license to practice law. If he is acquitted of all charges, however, he could immediately resume his duties of chief executive officer of the fourth largest county in Georgia with 722,000 residents.
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