Unlike last time when he was on the stand for four days, a key witness in the corruption trial against suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis spent only eight hours over two days testifying before he was excused Wednesday afternoon.
Kelvin Walton answered questions about three of his secretly recorded conversations with Ellis before prosecutor Lawanda Hodges and defense attorney Craig Gillen said they were done with him for now.
But they told the judge he may be called back.
On Wednesday, Gillen tried to focus the jury’s attention on Walton’s documented lies rather than his contention that vendors and department heads risked retaliation if they did not help Ellis pay off his 2012 re-election campaign debt.
Walton, once head of purchasing and contracts for DeKalb, resumed his testimony Wednesday, explaining and expounding on the secretly recorded conversation he had with Ellis as the CEO went down a list of vendors who had and had not made campaign contributions three years ago.
Walton and his secret recordings are key to prosecutors' corruption charges that Ellis strong-armed vendors for campaign contributions.
Gillen emphasized several times Ellis said he wasn’t suggesting the county cut ties with vendors because they did not give to his re-election campaign but questioned the contracts because they didn’t return the CEO’s phone calls asking for help retiring his campaign debt.
“They can not give. But they can’t be not returning phone calls and hanging up on me,” Ellis said in one of the recordings Gillen played.
One of the recordings played earlier Wednesday was made on Oct. 25, 2012, at the private office of an Ellis supporter. Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors on Tuesday that Walton was a liar and could not be trusted, but the tapes would show that in this case Walton was telling the truth.
Gillen reminded jurors, through his questions, that Walton lied to a special purpose grand jury and has so far escaped criminal charges because he agreed to help prosecutors by wearing a wire and recording telephone conversations with Ellis.
“Kelvin Walton is the man who makes the decision (of) when to put the recorder in his pocked and when he does not,” Gillen said.
“That’s correct,” Walton said.
“So the only thing we have to corroborate what Kelvin Walton says in on these tapes,” Gillen said.
Walton and Ellis discussed on the recording which top appointed county officials had not helped the CEO retire the debt on his successful 2012 campaign.
“They aren’t even thinking about how they (can) protect their jobs,” Ellis said of the department heads who had not donated.
Walton testified that he helped Ellis — donating money under the names of relatives and addressing non-compliant vendors — because he feared losing his job.
Testimony in Ellis retrial began Tuesday and Walton, a key witness for the prosecution, was quickly called. Walton did not testify until the second week of testimony the first time Ellis was tried; a jury of 12 women could not agree last fall on a verdict, which resulted in the ongoing retrial.
Ellis is charged in a nine-count indictment with extortion, bribery and perjury. Prosecutors say he strong-armed vendors for campaign contributions, telling his staff to withhold work if the vendors did not return his phone calls or give. And then he lied to a special purpose grand jury when he was asked if he got involved in contracts, prosecutors said.
Ellis has said he is not guilty and that he ordered staff to withhold work from vendors if they ignored his phone calls soliciting contributions because they were not responding to the head of the county government that paid them significant amounts of money.
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