PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Jury selection begins Wednesday in the retrial of Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, his wife and two charter school executives on federal bribery charges.
In the first trial, prosecutors spent two weeks presenting 20 witnesses and hundreds of documents to try to prove an alleged bribery scheme in which the two charter school executives contracted Johnson’s wife — who is an education consultant — to build a network of donors.
Prosecutors said the contract was in fact a bribe to Johnson for help with real estate that the charter schools’ parent company was trying to develop in Johnson’s district.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared in April.
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“We believed it was the just case to bring when we indicted it,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in an interview with KYW Newsradio last month. “We believed it was just when we took it to trial. And we continue to believe it is a just case.”
Defense attorneys have said there is no evidence of wrongdoing in the case, and they don’t believe prosecutors can get a guilty verdict.