Kenyatta Johnson trial: Day-by-day updates for federal bribery case

Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson and his wife, Dawn Chavous, are in court, two years after they were charged in a federal bribery case. Prosecutors say the couple accepted $67,000 in bribes from Universal Companies, a South Philadelphia nonprofit seeking Johnson’s help to protect its troubled real estate assets in his district — a charge Johnson and Chavous deny. According to the government, the money was funneled to the councilmember through a sham consulting contract the nonprofit gave Chavous between 2013 and 2014 for which she did very little work.

Should Johnson be convicted he would be the second member of Council to lose his seat in a corruption case within a year.

Here’s a recap of the latest developments and recent coverage:

What now? With Johnson’s month-long bribery trial ending in a mistrial, what happens next? Will there be another trial? When? What happens to Johnson’s Council seat in the interim? We answer all your questions. Read more: Full story

Johnson’s supporters: A sizable crew of political supporters, family members and fellow churchgoers kept the courtroom pews packed throughout the trial. They welcomed news of Tuesday’s mistrial as almost as good as a ‘not guilty’ verdict. “It’s biblical,” one said. Read more: Full story

Day 20, April 19: After another full day of deliberations, the jury reported to U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh that they were still hopelessly split and did not believe reviewing any more evidence would convince jurors on either side to change their views. The judge was forced to declare a mistrial and postpone the planned second phase of the trial against Johnson’s codefendants -- ex-Universal CEO Rahim Islam and former CFO Shahied Dawan. Prosecutors quickly vowed they intend to retry all four defendants on the bribery charges. But for now, Johnson said he was thankful for his supporters and ready to return to his work representing his district. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 19, April 18: Jurors told McHugh they had reached an impasse and were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after more than 18 hours of deliberations over three days. The message raised the specter that the trial could end in the most ambiguous of ways: a deadlocked jury and a mistrial. But McHugh wasn’t ready to make that decision just yet. He released the panel for the day, instructing them to return the next morning to keep trying. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 18, April 14: Jurors ended their second day of deliberations without a verdict, pausing only to send several notes to the court asking to review various exhibits. Just as McHugh was about to dismiss the panel until Monday — in observance of the Good Friday and Passover holidays — it surfaced with a question that the judge said he’d address at the start of next week: “Does failing to disclose a fact — such as a marriage —” constitute a knowing intent to defraud under the statute defining honest services fraud, the crime with which Johnson and his wife are charged? Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 17, April 13: After receiving instructions on the law from U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh, jurors began their deliberations but broke for the day after roughly five hours of discussion without reaching a verdict. Throughout the day, they asked to review numerous exhibits presented by both sides during the trial, but their requests offered limited insight into what aspects of the case may interest the panel most. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 16, April 12: There was one point upon which lawyers on opposite sides of the trial agreed in their final pitches to jurors: There is no smoking gun to prove the Johnson accepted nearly $67,000 in bribes disguised through a consulting contract with his wife. But when it came to what the remaining evidence did show, the attorneys could not have disagreed more. As prosecutors told it, the government put on a case that, while circumstantial, left no room for doubt that Johnson had sold the powers of his office to two nonprofit executives who effectively put him on retainer. Johnson’s lawyer, Patrick Egan dismissed prosecutors’ theory of the case as a collection of “cherry-picked” facts strung together to create an incriminating-looking but ultimately baseless fiction. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 15, April 11: The defense rested after a brief round of testimony from the project manager on the Royal Theater project and a lobbyist who worked with Universal Companies to get the zoning bill from Johnson that it needed for the plan to proceed. Prosecutors recalled the case’s lead investigator, FBI Special Agent Richard Haag, to rebut some aspects of the defense case. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 14, April 7: As the defense began its case, Barry Gross, lawyer for Chavous, put on a string of witnesses aimed at demonstrating the value she brought to Universal. They included Philadelphia ShopRite magnate Jeffrey Brown, who testified that Chavous helped forge a relationship between his grocery chain and one of Universal’s charter schools; investor and philanthropist Richard Binswanger, who said she was the first person who had ever solicited him personally for a possible donation to Universal; and a former special assistant to the nonprofit’s CEO whose testimony devolved into a testy back-and-forth with prosecutors over a $100,000 donation he said Chavous helped land for Universal’s schools. Emails prosecutors showed to jurors said otherwise. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 13, April 6: Prosecutors rested their case, after 10 days of testimony. U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh dismissed jurors for the day and took up mid-trial arguments from the defense seeking to have the case dismissed before the jury begins its deliberations. McHugh denied those requests, paving the way for the defense to begin its presentation of evidence. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 12, April 5: Prosecutors neared the end of their case, with a parade of brief witnesses including a Universal charter schoolteacher, a neighbor of a Universal-owned plot of land at 13th and Bainbridge Streets, a state ethics expert and an FBI forensic analyst. But testimony from one witness — Eve Lewis, Universal’s former vice president of marketing and development — didn’t go as planned. Lewis had testified before a grand jury that she wasn’t aware that Chavous had done any work for the $67,000 Universal had paid her. But on the witness stand Tuesday, she backtracked, describing the councilmember’s wife as an asset and sparring with prosecutors who accused her of changing her testimony. Clapping her hands in frustration, she shot back at Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dubnoff at one point: “I never provided false testimony.” Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 11, April 4: Two of Kenyatta Johnson’s staffers told a federal jury they had no idea that the Philadelphia city councilmember’s wife had a consulting contract with a South Philadelphia nonprofit that sought his help with real estate troubles in his district. Former legislative director Steve Cobb said he’d wished he’d known about it as he was tasked with working on matters related to Universal Companies’ property holdings. “I think it might be something you’d want to get an ethics opinion about,” he said. “I was a little surprised.” Jurors also heard from the lone employee of Chavous consulting firm, the former head of the city’s Redevelopment Authority and another contractor for Universal Companies, who said she was paid far less than Chavous for significantly more work. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 10, April 1: The superintendent of a network of charter schools at the heart of the case testified that she couldn’t recall ever seeing any work that Chavous completed despite the $67,000 she was paid over 16 months — payments prosecutors have labeled as a bribe meant to influence the councilmember. That was just one witness on a whirlwind day of government testimony that also featured a brief stint on the witness stand from Philadelphia schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 9, March 31: A neighbor to the Royal Theater testified that she and other area residents along Kater Street felt their input was cut out of the site’s redevelopment process after Johnson decided to push a rezoning bill through City Council, rather than pursue the changes with a more traditional path through the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustments. Earlier in the day, the FBI’s lead case agent wrapped up a marathon five days on the witness stand with a last volley of questions from the government and the defense. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 8, March 30: After three days of prosecution-led questioning of the lead FBI investigator on the case, the defense got its first opportunity to grill Special Agent Richard Haag. Things quickly grew testy as attorneys for Johnson, Chavous and their two codefendants challenged Haag’s estimate that Chavous did less than 40 hours of work for the $67,000 she was paid as part of her contract with Universal. The defense also questioned the portrait the government had painted of Johnson’s and Chavous’ personal finances. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 7, March 29: On the witness stand for a third day, Haag estimated that Chavous did no more than 40 hours of work during the 16 months during which she was paid nearly $67,000 by Universal Companies, the charity accused of bribing her husband. That estimate, if accurate, would mean she was earning $1,675 an hour. But late in the day, the defense had its first opportunity cross-examine Haag and pushed back against his calculation and his thesis that Chavous did next to nothing for the money she was paid. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 6, March 28: With the FBI’s lead case agent still on the witness stand, prosecutors sought to show that the money pressures bearing down on Johnson, Chavous and the two Universal Companies executives accused of paying them off created the perfect conditions for a bribery scheme. In 2013, the councilmember and his wife facing more than $40,000 in credit card debt, juggling two mortgages, and routinely overdrawing their bank accounts, financial records introduced at trial showed. Meanwhile, Universal was reeling from a cash-crunch that forced it to lay off staff and pinning its hopes that a redevelopment project of the Royal Theater that needed zoning assistance from Johnson would prove successful paving the way for the nonprofit to climb out of it’s financial hole. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 5, March 25: On the first full day of testimony, jurors heard from Tamelia Hinson-Threadgill — the stepdaughter of famed music producer Kenny Gamble and a current executive at Universal Companies, the nonprofit at the heart of the bribery case — and prominent developer Carl Dranoff, who partnered with Universal in 2013 and 2014 on a plan to redevelop the storied Royal Theater on South Street. Prosecutors have accused two Universal executives, former CEO Rahim Islam and ex-CFO Shahied Dawan, with bribing Johnson to push zoning legislation through City Council that would ease the Royal redevelopment plan. Dranoff told jurors he had no knowledge of any deal Islam and Dawan might have struck with Johnson regarding the bill. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 4, March 24: The battle to define Johnson and his wife for the federal jury that will decide their fate began Thursday with dueling portraits of the couple and lawyers on both sides vowing the evidence would ultimately vindicate their views. Prosecutors painted Chavous and Johnson — a three-term member of Council — as a South Philadelphia “power couple” who lived beyond their means and greedily lined their pockets with bribe money from a struggling nonprofit while ignoring constituent concerns. But the duo’s attorneys, in their opening pitch, balked at the government’s contention that $67,000 the organization paid Chavous through consulting contracts between 2013 and 2016 was meant as a payoff for her husband. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 3, March 23: A jury of nine men and three women was seated as the panel that will ultimately decide Johnson’s and Chavous’ fates. The jurors hail from across a nine-county region including Philadelphia, its suburbs, and outlying counties. Most of the jurors are white. Read more: Full story

Day 2, March 22: A second day of jury selection came to an abrupt halt less than an hour after it began, after U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh announced too few of the potential jurors had shown up to complete process. He announced they’d begin again with a new panel of potential jurors the following day. Read more: Full story

Day 1, March 21: Interviews of roughly 80 potential jurors began as attorneys and U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh worked to narrow down the group to the 12 jurors and four alternates who will hear the case. Johnson and Chavous spent most of the day cloistered behind closed doors as they sat with their lawyers and prosecutors.

The profile: When a cousin of Johnson was killed outside Childs Elementary School in 1998, some members of the family wanted revenge. But Johnson took a different path, becoming an antiviolence activist — and eventually an elected official — whose efforts to keep the community calm carried added credibility. But Johnson and his wife are now in court to address a very different set of crimes from the ones Johnson sought to avoid in his youth. Read more: Full story

The set-up: From the day he and his wife were indicted on federal bribery charges two years ago, Johnson vowed they would be vindicated once they could put their case in front of a jury. But as the trial is set to begin, the government says it likes its chances, too. Whatever the outcome, the proceedings are certain to further unsettle a Council already shaken by the corruption conviction of another of its members — Bobby Henon — less than four months ago. Read more: Full story

Keep up with every development in Kenyatta Johnson’s case with these day-by-day recaps, live coverage, and explainer on everything you need to know about the case.