Kenyatta Johnson and Dawn Chavous bribery trial: What you need to know

Two years after they were indicted on federal bribery charges, Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson and his wife, Dawn Chavous, are headed to trial. The proceedings are certain to make waves in City Hall, taking place just months after another member of Council, Bobby Henon, was convicted on federal corruption charges.

Here’s what you need to know about the case and those involved.

» READ MORE: Kenyatta Johnson’s bribery trial starts today — the second for a city councilmember in a year

Johnson, 48, a three-term incumbent on Philadelphia City Council, represents parts of Center City, Southwest, and his native South Philadelphia. Before he was elected to Council in 2012, he served for three years as state representative.

Prosecutors say Johnson used his position in 2013 and 2014 to protect real estate holdings of Universal Companies, a South Philadelphia community development and charter schools nonprofit founded by legendary music producer Kenny Gamble. In exchange, they say, Johnson took bribes of more than $66,750 in the form of a “low-show” consulting job for his wife.

» READ MORE: Feds charge Philly City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson with using his office to enrich himself and his wife

Chavous, 42, is the founder and president of her own consulting firm, a charter school lobbyist, political consultant, and founder of the Sky Community Partners nonprofit, which helps to distribute state scholarships to public and private schools outside students’ home districts.

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She has longstanding ties to State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, for whom she worked for nearly a decade, rising in his office from aide to chief of staff. Eventually, she ran his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. It was while working in Williams’ office that she met Johnson, who was serving as an aide to the senator at the time. They married in 2012.

Prosecutors say she did “little, if any, discernible work” — an estimated 30-40 hours total over a 16-month span — for the money she received consulting with Universal.

» READ MORE: Wife of indicted Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson: ‘I haven’t done anything wrong’ | Jenice Armstrong

The couple each face two counts of honest services fraud, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

» READ MORE: ‘Glaring giant loophole’: Philly Council members have to report who pays them, but not their spouses

Johnson and Chavous have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Their attorneys argue that there is no evidence that Chavous’ contract with Universal had anything to do with Johnson’s votes on matters involving Universal’s landholdings.

Chavous’ lawyer say she was qualified for her job at Universal as a leading education consultant, campaign adviser, and advocate for charter schools. She calls the notion that the contract with Universal was a payoff to her husband insulting, sexist, and demeaning.

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Aside from the likelihood of a significant prison term, Johnson would become the second city lawmaker to lose his seat this year to public corruption charges. Former Councilmember Bobby Henon resigned in January after a federal jury convicted him and labor leader John J. Dougherty in their bribery case.

» READ MORE: John Dougherty and Bobby Henon found guilty at federal bribery trial, upending city politics and organized labor

Johnson and Chavous are likely to appeal a guilty verdict.

The majority of the charges in the 22-count indictment are levied against Abdur Rahim Islam and Shahied Dawan, two Universal Companies executives accused of bribing Johnson and Chavous. They include counts of racketeering conspiracy, tax evasion and wire fraud.

» READ MORE: South Philly nonprofit exec pleads not guilty to bribing City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson

Gamble — a music mogul-turned-developer and the founder of Universal Companies — is not charged in the case. Prosecutors have described him as a victim who fell prey to Islam and Dawan’s greed.

In addition to that bribery scheme, prosecutors have charged Islam and Dawan with embezzling more than $500,000 from the Universal Companies nonprofit and with a separate bribery scheme involving a former school board president in Milwaukee, where Universal ran two charter schools.

U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh Jr., who is overseeing the trial, ruled last year that jurors will hear the bribery case involving Johnson and Chavous first, then the other allegations against the executives — and arrive at two separate verdicts.

Prosecutors say Johnson’s assistance on Council bailed Universal — and by extension Islam and Dawan — out of a financial jam. By 2014, the nonprofit was teetering on the brink of insolvency and in danger of losing potentially valuable properties it owned in the city.

For example, after a zoning change Johnson helped push through Council for the Royal Theater, a historic property on South Street that Universal bought in 2000 for $280,252, the nonprofit was able to sell the property to a developer for $3.7 million, more than 15 times what it had originally paid.

» READ MORE: Royal disappointment: Historic theater languishes in Gamble's hands

That same year, Universal faced potentially losing another parcel of properties it owned at 13th and Bainbridge Streets — land it purchased in 2005 at a cut-rate price of $3 under a contract with the city that required it to build 109 single-family homes on it within 18 months.

But eight years later, the land remained undeveloped, strewn with trash and had become the subject of neighborhood complaints. When the city began the process to revoke Universal’s ownership, prosecutors say Johnson intervened to keep the land in the hands of the nonprofit.

The custom on Council that prosecutors say Johnson used to exercise so much control over Universal’s real estate struggles. By tradition, councilmembers hold final approval over nearly all land-use decisions in their districts, though there are no written rules codifying that privilege.

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Critics say allowing one legislator unchecked sway over land use makes the system vulnerable to unethical behavior, but proponents argue prerogative power helps to give residents a voice in neighborhood development and can help to streamline the development process.

Six out of the seven cases where a member of Council has been convicted of wrongdoing in Philadelphia over the last four decades have involved land-use deals.

The government’s list of 51 potential witnesses includes such high-profile names as state Sens. Williams and Sharif Street, State Rep. Jordan Harris, real estate investor Ori Feibush, former Philadelphia Managing Director Brian Abernathy, outgoing Philadelphia Schools Superintendent William Hite, and Gamble.

Unlike the trial of Henon and Dougherty last year, the government’s case is not expected to include wiretap recordings of conversations involving the defendants. Instead, prosecutors will rely on witness testimony, business records, text messages, emails, and contracts to sell its case to jurors.

Attorneys expect the first portion of the trial involving Johnson, Chavous, Islam and Dawan to last around three weeks, and the second section — focused only on Islam and Dawan — to last a few additional days.