Feds move to dismiss charges against NBJC CEO

Federal prosecutors in Tallahassee, Fla., filed a motion in court on May 15 asking a judge to dismiss all remaining political corruption related charges against Sharon Lettman-Hicks, the CEO and board chair of the D.C.-based LGBTQ group National Black Justice Coalition, and Andrew Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor and unsuccessful Florida gubernatorial candidate.

A final decision on whether to dismiss the charges was expected to be made on Wednesday, May 17, by U.S. district Court Judge Allen Winsor. Legal observers expect him to approve the motion for dismissal.

The decision by prosecutors to call for dismissing the case was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat on May 15. One day earlier, the newspaper broke the story that a jury that became deadlocked on reaching a verdict earlier this month in the joint trial for Lettman-Hicks and Gillum on 19 counts of wire fraud and one count of attempt and conspiracy to commit wire fraud voted 10 to 2 for acquittal on most of the charges.

That revelation came after the jury on May 4 found Gillum not guilty on a single charge of lying to the FBI during a longstanding FBI investigation into the corruption charges against Gillum and Lettman-Hicks that emerged in a grand jury indictment against the two on June 7, 2022.

On the same day it acquitted Gillum on the one count, the jury announced it was deadlocked on all remaining charges against Gillum and all charges against Lettman-Hicks, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. Prosecutors at that time announced plans to bring Gillum and Lettman-Hicks up for retrial on the remaining charges. verdict for Gillum on all remaining counts after voting unanimously to find him not guilty on the one count of lying to the FBI.

According to the newspaper, the statement released by the jurors said the jury voted 10-2 to find Lettman-Hicks not guilty on 10 counts against her and voted 9-3 to find her not guilty on the remaining counts.

Prosecutors with the office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida did not give a reason for asking the judge to dismiss the remaining charges against Gillum and Lettman-Hicks.

But the Tallassee Democrat reports that legal experts believe, given the jury’s leaning against a conviction prosecutors would likely face strong barriers in obtaining a conviction in another trial.

The newspaper reports that the juror’s views were made even more clear when several of them “anonymously announced that the 12-person panel voted heavily in favor of acquittal but that two ‘biased’ jurors prevented a unanimous decision.”

The Tallassee Democrat reports that several jurors, including two who spoke to the newspaper, wrote in a public statement that the jury voted 10-2 for a not guilty

Lettman-Hicks has called the charges against her “baseless” and politically motivated. At the time she was indicted, Lettman-Hicks was running as a Democratic candidate for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. She withdrew her candidacy shortly after the indictment.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.