ATLANTA (CN) — A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a request for a new trial filed by a former high-ranking Atlanta city official who was convicted for participating in a bribery scheme that cost the city millions of dollars.
In a three-page opinion, an 11th Circuit panel unanimously concluded that the lower court made no reversible errors during Mitzi Bickers' 2022 trial.
However, Bickers still is likely to have her 14-year prison sentence shortened. The order said her case will return to the lower court for a limited resentencing after the government moved to dismiss four of the wire fraud charges against her.
"Even so, the withdrawal of those counts does not require a new trial because the evidence supporting those counts did not cause prejudicial spillover to the remaining conviction counts," the three-judge circuit panel wrote.
"Therefore, we determine that Counts 7–10 should be vacated, and Bickers should receive a limited resentencing reflecting the removed counts."
In a June 2023 filing, prosecutors wrote that since Bickers’ trial, “the law regarding wire fraud has developed significantly,” citing recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings and decisions in other federal judicial circuits.
Federal authorities concluded Bickers' failure to report outside income to the city of Atlanta on disclosure forms, the basis of the wire fraud claims, may not have met those conditions.
Bickers, who served as director of human services under former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and also worked as a pastor and political consultant, was convicted of nine of 12 counts for filing false tax returns, conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering and wire fraud, after an approximately two-week trial.
In addition to her prison sentence, Bickers, along with her co-conspirators, were ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution. She received the longest sentence of any of the 10 officials or contractors who were also convicted for being involved in the scandal that roiled the city's politics and Reed's administration.
During oral arguments on Tuesday, Bickers's attorney Marissa Goldberg, told the 11th Circuit panel the lower court erred when it severely limited admissible testimony regarding the history of government cooperation from Elvin “E.R.” Mitchell Jr.
Mitchell was one of the city contractors who reportedly paid millions in bribes to Bickers in order to secure several valuable and lucrative City of Atlanta contracts related to bridge repairs and snow removal between 2010 and 2013. He had previously pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government on the charges against Bickers in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Bickers argued that more extensive cross examination should have been allowed regarding the timing of Mitchell's cooperation because he had already been cooperating with the government in a separate investigation where at one point he was tasked specifically with bribing public officials.
U.S. Attorney Tiffany Johnson argued before the judges that Mitchell was cross-examined during trial for hours on his credibility as a cooperating witness and that there was overwhelming other evidence of Bickers’s guilt.
The evidence showed that Mitchell and another contractor, Charles P. Richards Jr., inflated their contract bids and costs of work to personally profit and to cover Bickers’ bribe amounts, costing Atlanta millions of dollars.
Bickers was also found guilty of lying on her 2011 federal income tax return by claiming she earned only $57,896, when she had accepted over $600,000 in bribe payments and purchased a $775,000 lakefront home.
The panel that issued the order included U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, a Bill Clinton appointee, U.S. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, a Barack Obama appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu, who was appointed last year by President Joe Biden.
Goldberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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