PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented sharply different interpretations of the evidence shared over the past three weeks during closing arguments in the federal bribery trial of Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, his wife, Dawn Chavous, and two former executives of the Universal Companies, a housing and charter school nonprofit founded by music producer Kenny Gamble.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dubnoff led off, stitching together the extensive record that the prosecution created with thousands of documents and testimony from 20 witnesses into a narrative, in which a financially distressed Universal desperately needed help from Johnson so it could sell real estate it owned in his district. Johnson and Chavous, in Dubnoff’s telling, were also in financial distress and so agreed to provide help in exchange for a bribe in the form of a contract for Chavous’ consulting company.
“Chavous may have been a hard worker for other clients,” Dubnoff said, referencing testimony even from prosecution witnesses that Chavous’ work ethic was strong, “but she was hardly working for Universal.”
Dubnoff leaned heavily, for that assessment, on testimony from the lead FBI agent in the case, Richard Haag, who spent five days on the stand and testified that he estimated Chavous had worked no more than 40 hours over the course of the contract — May 2013 to August 2014, during which she earned $66,750.
He argued Universal didn’t need her for the services she provided — connecting the company to influential donors, monitoring legislation in Harrisburg or planning a 20th-anniversary event, which he called a “make-work” job.
“Dawn Chavous did some work,” Dubnoff acknowledged, but “it wasn’t much. It was a low-show job.”
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He finished his remarks with a flourish, pointing to each of the defendants, in turn, saying they were, “guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.”
All four defense attorneys accused the government of distorting the evidence and rejected the narrative that Universal or Johnson and Chavous were in financial distress. They noted Universal was expanding in 2013, and Johnson and Chavous never had less than $20,000 in their bank accounts throughout the period of the indictment.
“That was a heck of a story you heard from Mr. Dubnoff,” said Johnson’s attorney, Pat Egan. “The problem is there’s no evidence to support that story.”
The lack of evidence, he said, was “not for lack of trying.” He noted that the government had worked on it for six years, conducted 150 interviews, used search warrants and subpoenas to amass more than 2 million documents, gave out two letters of immunity, and followed Johnson while he was walking his dog and taking his children to the YMCA.
“And, they have no evidence,” said Egan. “A lot of what they gave you was half-truth or no truth.”
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David Laigaie, representing former Universal CEO Rahim Islam, gave a similar assessment.
“When I first got involved with this case, it occurred to me that the government had no more than a theory — a theory in search of evidence,” he said, adding that he still finds it to be just that. “The government doesn’t have evidence so it misleads you.”
Chavous’ attorney, Barry Gross, seemed particularly outraged by the case, accusing the government of “defaming her value and her work.”
He went through her invoices and recited the services she provided, asking after each one, “Is she acting like somebody who knew her contract was fake?”
He also criticized the government for never, among the 150 interviews over the six-year investigation, talking to the people Chavous referenced in her invoices.
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“Does that look like they’re trying to do a fair investigation,” he asked, “or like they’re trying to come to a conclusion?”
The jury is expected to receive the case Wednesday.