Forty-seven times the one-time aide to DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Friday, initially declining to answer everything from where she worked to conversations she overheard.
But, in almost every case, Judge Courtney Johnson instructed Nina Hall to answer the questions, which she did. The judge allowed Hall to not answer a question about whether she lied to a special grand jury about taking money from vendors.
Prosecutors called Hall to testify about overhearing a call Ellis made to a vendor, Joanne Wise with the IT company Ciber. In that conversation, they say, Ellis yelled at Wise for not giving to his 2012 re-election campaign.
Ellis is charged with pressuring vendors to make campaign contributions and with lying to a special purpose grand jury about his role in deciding if DeKalb would stop doing business with any particular contractor.
Recordings played in the trial so far have been of conversations in which Ellis tells department heads to terminate county business with certain vendors. The reason he gives is they did not return his phone calls; calls made to solicit a contribution.
The secret recordings made by the county’s former purchasing director, Kelvin Walton, are key to the case against Ellis. Walton agreed to wear a wire when prosecutors said he could be indicted for lying to a special purpose grand jury.
Wise testified earlier in the day about Ellis’ calls. Ellis made a total of nine calls to Wise’s cell phone or office phone in a month. Wise returned two of them.
In the first one, she testified, Ellis was relentless. He first asked for $2,500 from her employer. “He said Ciber had benefited from the relationship with DeKalb and he hoped he could count of Ciber for a political contribution,” she said.
Then he asked for a personal contribution when she said the company didn’t give to candidates.
In the last call in March 2012, Wise said he berated her, called her a bad mother and threatened to tell her boss she was responsible for Ciber losing its contract with DeKalb.
“He said, ‘Well you’re not going to get any more business from DeKalb County,’” Wise said when she told him again she would not make a contribution.
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