PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The prosecution has rested in the federal bribery trial of Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, his wife Dawn Chavous and two former executives of Universal Companies.
Prosecutors called 20 witnesses across 10 days of testimony, trying to make the case that Johnson took a bribe from the Universal executives — in the form a consulting contract with Chavous — in exchange for sponsoring a zoning change for the Royal Theater, a large Universal property in his district, and put in a good word for the company on some smaller lots that they partially owned.
Prosecutors spent about half their time on testimony from FBI agent Richard Haag. He walked the jury through hundreds of emails and other documents, trying to support the bribery allegations. He returned to the stand one more time to question Chavous’ value to Universal.
In between, there were more than a dozen witnesses, but also one very noticeable absence. Developer Ori Feibush was deeply involved in the real estate issue that Universal supposedly needed Johnson’s help with. Feibush and Johnson have been political rivals, with Feibush running unsuccessfully against Johnson for the City Council's second district seat in 2015.
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Defense attorneys noted that prosecutors interviewed him six times during their investigation — far more than any other witness. Reporters were told he was on deck to testify Monday, but he never appeared.
There was a lot of financial testimony, because the motivation for the alleged scheme, the prosecution argued, is that Universal, Johnson and Chavous had money troubles. The lead FBI agent, a forensic accountant who analyzed their finances, was back on the stand for one more time on Wednesday.
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She presented charts and graphs showing Johnson and Chavous with fluctuating bank balances, and Universal with low assets. But on cross-examination, she conceded that Johnson and Chavous never had less than $28,000 in their various accounts and that Universal had $1 million in liquid assets during the years covered by the indictment.
The defense is expected to begin its case Thursday.