CLEVELAND: Former Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee collapsed backward into her chair and put her hands on her face Friday evening when she heard the first of six verdicts in her federal bribery case: Guilty.
The jury, which deliberated for about an hour and a half, reached the same conclusion on the five other charges against Lee.
Lee hugged her sisters and friends and left the Cleveland courtroom looking stunned.
“I didn’t do this,” Lee told a Beacon Journal reporter.
Timothy Ivey, one of Lee’s three public defenders, said she will appeal.
Federal prosecutors and FBI officials, however, celebrated the outcome.
“This is a public official who used her office to line her pockets and fill her bank account,” U.S. Attorney Carole Rendon said in a news release. “She violated the public’s trust and will now have to answer for her actions.”
FBI Special Agent Stephen D. Anthony said Lee was “motivated by her own self-interests.”
“The FBI will continue to root out public corruption, whether it is elected officials that violate their oath and the law or citizens that bribe them to do so,” he said in a news release.
Lee will be sentenced May 26 by U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko. She could face up to 10 years under federal sentencing guidelines.
Lee, 58, of Akron, a Summit County councilwoman from 2011 to 2016 and the former second-highest-ranking officer in the Summit County Democratic Party, was accused of accepting small gifts of cash and other items in exchange for using her political influence to help the Abdelqader family. She also was charged with getting rid of evidence and lying to FBI agents who interviewed her.
Lee was convicted of six charges: two counts of honest services fraud, which is depriving citizens of “honest services;” two violations of the Hobbs Act, which is the federal bribery law; obstruction of justice; and making false statements to law enforcement.
Lee’s three co-defendants, Omar Abdelqader, Abdelrahman Abdelqader and Samir Abdelqader pleaded guilty, rather than going to trial. Omar and Abdelrahman are brothers, while Samir is Abdelrahman’s son.
Lee, however, rejected a plea agreement that included a 30-month prison sentence and decided to go to trial.
The federal investigation into Lee included wiretaps on her and Omar Abdelqader’s phones, surveillance, an analysis of bank and campaign finance records, an examination of trash and an informant who wore a wire. Federal prosecutors entered exhibits that numbered up to 322.
After a discussion with her attorneys Thursday afternoon, Lee opted against testifying in her trial. The trial, expected to last up to two weeks, abruptly ended with the defense calling no witnesses.
Lee had a large contingent of supporters in court Friday, the most since her trial began Monday. Bishop Joey Johnson of the House of the Lord in Akron was among them. When he came into the court, he embraced Lee and whispered in her ear. She wiped away tears when she sat back down at the defense table beside her attorneys.
Closing arguments
During closing arguments Friday afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Hollingsworth said Lee and Omar Abdelqader had an agreement that he would give her a “steady stream of cash” and she would use her political connections when he needed them. He said her actions included calling judges and prosecutors, going to court to try to assist with criminal proceedings against two of Abdelqader’s nephews and writing a letter to the IRS on behalf of the son of one of Abdelqader’s friends.
“The defendant had political power,” Hollingsworth said. “She had an office and a title — and she used it.”
Ivey, the public defender, however, accused the government of overreaching in its investigation in his closing argument. He said Lee did nothing more than accept financial help from a friend in a time of need.
“A public official is entitled to have a personal life and to have friends — friends who do things for each other,” Ivey said. “There’s nothing nefarious about that.”
Ivey took issue with the prosecution’s summary exhibits, which he said made unfair leaps to connect evidence in the case. He called them a “rancid stew you should not partake of” and urged the jurors to listen to the dozens of tapes from wiretaps for themselves to see what was said — and what wasn’t.
“This stuff is not accurate,” he said of the prosecution’s summaries. “It’s not honest, and it’s wrong.”
Jury deliberations
Attorneys finished their closing arguments about 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, with the jury starting its deliberations about an hour later and returning with a verdict at 4:30 p.m.
Before the verdicts were read, Lee sat in the back of the courtroom, holding hands with two of her sisters. When her attorneys arrived, she sat at the defense table wringing her hands.
After sitting down when she heard the first guilty verdict, Lee stood back up.
Claire Curtis, one of Lee’s attorneys, put her hand on Lee’s back as Boyko polled the jurors and they confirmed their verdicts.
Ivey said he was “very disappointed” with the jurors’ decision.
“We do not feel the government proved its case,” he said and then turned and hugged Lee.
Lee’s family members and friends appeared as shocked as she was by the verdicts.
“I feel the jury got it wrong,” said Janice Davis, one of Lee’s friends who attended the trial. “I don’t think it’s over. She’s got to stand strong, has got to deal with it. And, she needs a good appeals lawyer.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com or on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .