No verdict in Kenyatta Johnson bribery trial after second day of jury deliberations
After roughly 10 hours of deliberations over two days, the jurors weighing the fates of the Philadelphia City Council member and his wife, Dawn Chavous, will continue their discussions Monday.
Jurors in the federal bribery trial of Philadelphia City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson and his wife, Dawn Chavous, ended their second day of deliberations Friday without reaching a verdict.
U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh dismissed the panel of eight women and four men early after roughly five hours of cloistered discussions. Throughout the day, they sent notes asking to review several exhibits as well as the judge’s instructions on the law.
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Johnson, a three-term Democrat from Point Breeze, and Chavous, a noted charter school advocate and former chief of staff to State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, deny allegations that they accepted nearly $67,000 in bribes from a pair of nonprofit executives desperate for his help in holding on to troubled real estate assets in his district.
Prosecutors allege the money was funneled Johnson’s way through a sham consulting contract the housing and charter school organization Universal Companies signed with Chavous in 2013 and 2014.
Two other defendants — Universal’s former CEO Rahim Islam and ex-CFO Shahied Dawan — are also charged and facing trial alongside the Councilmember and his wife. They, too, have denied wrongdoing.
If convicted, all four could face up to 20 years in prison on each of the two counts of honest services fraud with which they are charged.