JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- After brief recess following the selection and seating of the jury, opening arguments got underway a little after 1 p.m. in former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown’s corruption trial at the federal court building in downtown Jacksonville.
Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Tysen Duva laid out the government’s argument in a 41-minute opening statement and argued that while Brown was a trailblazer and a popular congresswoman while she served the people of Northeast Florida and Orlando, there was another side they didn’t see - one of entitlement, greed and corruption.
Brown’s defense lawyer, James Smith III, laid out a very different tract: he argued the corrupt, greedy person in this trial was her chief of staff, who’s previously pleaded guilty to two charges of 18 he was charged with when Brown was charged.
READ: Highlights from the Opening Statements
Smith claims Ronnie Simmons, who’d been with Brown since her first campaign for the House in 1992, had fooled everyone, including Brown and the government, and argued it was he - and his girlfriend Carla Wiley - who actually defrauded so many donors and took so much money.
Brown is charged with 22 counts in a 24-count indictment. The U.S. government is accusing her of using her reputation as a congresswoman to solicit donations to a bogus charity that she and Simmons used as a personal slush fund. The government is also accusing Brown of lying on tax forms, underrepresenting earnings and over representing donations.
Carla Wiley, the founder of the bogus charity One Door For Education, was also mentioned several times. Wiley pleaded guilty over a year ago to charges related to running the fraudulent charity.
Both she and Brown’s chief of staff have agreed to cooperate with the prosecution against the former congresswoman.
This was a point brought up at least twice by Smith in his opening statement; he cautioned the jury on believing testimony from people who have cut a plea deal and admitted they lied, cheated and stole, which is what both Wiley and Simmons are accused of and have admitted to.
“[Simmons] fooled [the congresswoman], the donors of One Door, and fooled the prosecutors who have based their case on his testimony,” Smith told the jury. “Don’t let him fool you.”
Smith painted Brown as a hardworking congresswoman, beholden to her constituents, and working hard on their behalf. He said everything she did during her time in Congress was to help the people from her district and that all other tasks, from the most menial like gassing up her car to more important like planning events, was handled by Simmons.
Duva argued in his opening statement that Simmons worked under Brown and did her bidding - that included taking out $800 a day from the One Door bank account and depositing it almost daily into the congresswoman’s bank account.
Smith said Brown didn’t notice the changes in her bank account; she wasn’t computer savvy and couldn’t look it up online - all of that was handled by her chief of staff. Smith’s opening statement was 37 minutes long.
He told the jury they’d have to decide two questions: who is Ronnie Simmons and could they trust him?
The government says Simmons came clean about the money he had been taking along with Brown. Duva outlined a scenario when Brown and her daughter took a trip to Nassau, Bahamas and stayed at the Atlantis Hotel, then flew to Beverly Hills and shopped along Rodeo Drive. Every day during this trip, Duva said the government has documentation showing Simmons continue to make deposits into her bank account.
Duva also brought up Von Alexander, who ran an organization in Jacksonville that Brown would also allegedly funnel money through.
Brown committed wire fraud, mail fraud and stole money from the government by lying on her tax forms, Duva argued. He told the jury at the close of his opening statement that they’d see clearly at the end of witness testimony that Brown was running a well-oiled machine; that everyone was playing their role.
“That’s why it lasted as long as it did,” Duva told the jury, referring to the fraud scheme revolving around One Door. Brown is accused of helping raise over $800,000 for the scholarship charity and only ever giving out $1,200 in scholarships over the course of four years.
The first witness was called after a short recess: Jim Picerne, a local real estate developer. Duva told the jury Picerne wasn’t to be their first witness, but since he’s leaving the country, this was the only day he could testify.
Picerne told the court he knew Brown through his brother, who trusted her. After an email from Simmons asking him to call the congresswoman back in 2012, Picerne wrote a check to One Door For Education for $10,000. Picerne told the court he was never really sure what the money was going to.
After Picerne left the stand, the prosecution called Special Agent Vanessa Stelly with the FBI, one of the principal investigators in the case. Her testimony continued through the rest of Wednesday.
The prosecution outlined the bank accounts Brown owned, the One Door For Education letters of incorporation, and also bank ledgers showing withdrawals from the One Door account and deposits into Brown’s bank accounts.
She backed up Duva’s claims during the opening arguments that Simmons would pull the maximum allowed amount out of the One Door Capital One account - $800 - and later deposit it into Brown’s accounts.
Most of her testimony revolved around establishing the facts Duva outlined in his opening statements. There were a large number of exhibits put into evidence - more than 75 for just this witness.
The prosecution brought up in its opening statement a question of how, if Brown knew nothing about the cash deposits being made almost daily, didn’t she question the fluctuating balance in her bank account.
Smith argued in his opening statement that Brown would often travel and spend money for her work as a congresswoman; she’d travel to Jacksonville, Orlando, or even overseas and then file a reimbursement claim with the government. Smith said Brown saw her account constantly fluctuating and wouldn’t notice Simmons’ deposits.
The prosecution walked Stelly through the Brown’s bank records, detailing how, when and where the deposits and withdrawals were made. In one scenario, a deposit was made into Brown’s account in Laurel, Maryland, where Simmons lived, and then $200 was withdrawn in Long Beach, California the same day.
Stelly will retake the stand beginning at 9:30 Thursday morning at the federal court building in downtown Jacksonville and continue her testimony. The prosecution is having her walk the court through many withdrawals and deposits allegedly made by Simmons.