Testimony in the sentencing of former Rep. Tyrone Brooks should be completed by the end of Wednesday, lawyers in the case said Tuesday.
A federal prosecutor told U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg he expected to need all of Tuesday, a second full day, to call all his witnesses. The prosecution is requesting she sentence the one-time Atlanta Democrat to two years in prison for defrauding the IRS and major donors who thought they were giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to address literacy in Georgia.
Brooks' lawyers are asking her to sentence him to probation in light of the work he has done for civil rights, starting when he was 15 and joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement.
In April, Brooks resigned the legislative seat he had held for almost 3 1/2 decades and then pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud and then no contest to five counts of mail or wire fraud. Prosecutors said Brooks diverted his personal bank account almost $1 million that had been donated to a sham charity, Universal Humanities, or given to the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, which he led for years.
Brooks, using his influence as a legislator and a decades-long civil rights activist, asked for contributions from major companies and the Teamsters to fund Visions of Literacy, a program purportedly a part of Universal Humanities, as well as other efforts to register black voters, encourage African Americans to run for elected office and to address violence in the community.
Brooks’ lawyers claim the donors did not care if the money they donated was used for Brooks’ personal expenses and that his problem with the IRS could be attributed to sloppy record-keeping.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors called government agents and an officer from the Coca-Cola Co., which donated a total of $400,000 to Universal Humanities for tutors, books and workshops for the Visions of Literacy program that was purportedly part of Universal Humanities.
All testified that the rules were clear despite his lawyers’ attempts to suggest Brooks was confused.
Roger Johnson, who heads the department at Coke that recommends what charities the company will support testified that Brooks had ready access to him as well as higher-ranking Coke officials. The access came because of a long-running relationship based on his influence as a legislator and in the civil rights community.
Coke at one time sent Brooks a $20,000 check for Visions of Literacy. Johnson said Brooks initially returned the check because he had requested $50,000. He eventually accepted the $20,000 donation, Johnson said.
“I thought the money would be spent on the program,” Johnson said.
Prosecutors say the money was, instead, spent on things like cable for Brooks’ house, his wife’s credit card bill and his ex-wife’s power bill.
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