PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia schools superintendent William Hite took the stand Friday in the federal bribery trial of City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, his wife Dawn Chavous, and two former executives of the Universal Companies.
Chavous was a consultant for Universal, but prosecutors allege her $66,000 contract was a bribe in disguise from former executives Abdur Rahim Islam and Shahied Dawan, and that she did little actual work.
Prosecutors called Hite to challenge an entry on one of her invoices about setting up a meeting with him. Hite testified that former Universal CEO Rahim Islam had his cell phone number and often called him directly to talk, suggesting Chavous’ involvement in a meeting would be unnecessary.
But Hite also said Chavous had invited him to meetings, though for another group, and that she also had his cell number.
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On cross-examination, he conceded he has had thousands of meetings since coming to Philadelphia and wouldn’t necessarily know who was involved in setting up every meeting.
The pace of the trial has picked up considerably after Judge Gerald McHugh warned attorneys that he thought the jury was becoming impatient. That came after the lead FBI agent on the case spent five days on the stand.
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Hite was one of five witnesses to complete testimony in a single day.
Jurors also heard from a disgruntled neighbor of a Universal property, the one for which Johnson sponsored rezoning, allegedly in exchange for Chavous’ contract. Additionally, jurors heard from a former FBI agent, Universal’s chief of charter operations, and developer Richard Barnhart, who partnered with Universal on affordable housing.
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It wasn’t always clear how the witnesses advanced the government’s case.
The trial was delayed for about two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected to take about three weeks.
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