PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council gave a hero’s welcome to Kenyatta Johnson on Thursday as he returned to his desk in Council chambers a day after a federal jury acquitted him of bribery charges.
In Philadelphia’s long history of council members who have faced federal charges, very few have returned victorious. Perhaps that explains the exceptional enthusiasm that greeted Johnson.
Colleagues and staff hugged and high-fived Johnson as he entered the chambers for the first time in more than a month. The supporters who had filled the courtroom every day of the retrial came to Council chambers to applaud.
Councilmember Jaime Gauthier said she was ecstatic to have him back. In public remarks, council members, including Katherine Gilmore Richardson, congratulated him on his victory in federal court.
“Your test is just a testimony to show what happens when you put and you keep God first,” Richardson said.
Johnson’s return came just 18 hours after a federal jury found him and his wife, Dawn Chavous, not guilty of having taken a bribe from two former executives at Universal Companies, a housing and charter school nonprofit founded by music producer Kenny Gamble. The jury also acquitted the executives, though they face further charges.
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Because of that, Johnson said he was limited in what he could say beyond being grateful.
“I just want to thank each and every one of my colleagues for your text messages, your calls, your words of encouragement, and I want to say it feels good to be back in this beautiful, magnificent body to work, to push the City of Philadelphia forward,” he said.
“I am happy to be here in City Council, working to make sure we have a city of peace, not guns.”
He said his wife is also relieved the case is over.
In the end, prosecutors offered no direct evidence that Johnson had taken a bribe from the executives through a contract with his wife, who is a consultant. The defense showed Chavous had done extensive work under the contract.
The government spent six years investigating the couple, seized or subpoenaed all their communications and records, and was unable to convince two juries, in a trial and a retrial, that they had committed a crime.