CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A jury is deliberating on whether to convict former Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee on corruption charges after the FBI said she used her political influence with a convenience store owner who gave her bribes.
Lee, 58, of Akron faces charges of conspiracy, honest services mail fraud, Hobbs Act bribery, obstruction of justice and making false statements to law enforcement.
The trial began Monday in U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko's courtroom. The jury began deliberating Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors centered their case on two acts they say Lee did in exchange for bribes from Omar Abdelqader, a North Canton man who owns several Bi-Rite convenience stories in the Akron area. Those acts include having Lee try to fix a criminal case involving Abdelqader's nephew and having her write a letter on her Summit County letterhead to the IRS on behalf of Abdelqader's friend.
In exchange, Abdelqader gave Lee cash -- $40 here, $100 there -- as well as cigarettes and food, prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Hollingsworth said during his closing arguments that these were characterized as campaign donations, but the money always went into her personal bank account.
He played back phone calls and read transcripts of calls captured on an FBI wiretap that he said proved both Lee and Abdelqader knew exactly what they were doing.
In one call, when a friend told Lee that Abdelqader must like him, she responded by saying "No. Omar ask me for more damn favors." She later says it's because "him and his people, them folks always in trouble."
In other phone calls, the pair explicitly talk about money.
"She used him for cash. He used her for political influence," Hollingsworth said.
Timothy Ivey, Lee's federal public defender, told the jury that the calls that prosecutors played to the jury did not show a conspiracy, but rather conversations between friends. Abdelqader knew Lee through her husband, and said he was helping Lee out while her husband was in Yemen for three months.
He said Lee is entitled to have a private life, and the conversations were being mischaracterized by the government as a grand conspiracy.
"This is the type of conversation a person has with a friend, not some clandestine bribe situation," Ivey said.
He encouraged the jury to listen to the "entirety of conversations," and not just clips that prosecutors cherry-picked. He said the government's evidence amounted to a "rancid stew of which you shouldn't partake of."
Lee, who served as a councilwoman from 2011 until 2016. She lost a primary election last year and is no longer on the county council.
She rejected a plea agreement from prosecutors that could have sent her to prison for between 30 and 46 months. If convicted, faces more than 10 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
She indicated before the trial that she may take the stand in her own defense. She chose not to do so and did not put on any of her own evidence.
Abdelqader pleaded guilty in January to six federal charges. His brother, Abdelrahman Abdelqader, also pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges. Both will be sentenced in May.
Samir Abdelqader, Omar Abdelqader's nephew and Abdelrahman Abdelqader's son pleaded guilty last year to making false statements to the FBI. Boyko placed him on three years' probation.
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