Former Atlanta Mayor Campbell Convicted of Tax Evasion, Cleared of Corruption Charges

Special to the NNPA from the Atlanta Voice ATLANTA (NNPA) Ninety days. That’s how much time former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell has to get his affairs in order before he is sentenced and starts serving time for his conviction of federal income tax evasion. Convicted on three counts, Campbell faces a maximum three years on each count and a possible $300,000 fine. He was acquitted on federal corruption charges. Prosecutors were pushing for convictions on corruption, bribery and tax evasion. Campbell’s attorneys have said they will ask U.S. District Judge Richard Story to grant probation instead of imprisonment. Once he is sentenced, his law license in Florida, where he currently resides, will be suspended. In Georgia, the state bar will investigate the matter and make a determination once they receive notification from Campbell’s attorney. He will also lose his right to vote in Florida. Campbell, 52, could be facing between two to three years in federal custody. After examining federal sentencing guidelines, federal prosecutors estimated that he will receive two years in prison. Despite being acquitted of corruption charges, it is a long hard fall for the charismatic former mayor who presided over the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and one of the largest economic spurts within the city in decades. Campbell also presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in the city’s history. It was the conviction of 12 city contractors and top-level city staffers of corruption charges that led federal prosecutors to Campbell. For six years, federal prosecutors looked into the finances of Campbell. They maintained he used city contractors as his own personal ATM to fund his jet-set lifestyle of traveling, gambling and women. After six weeks of testimony and 70 witnesses, the prosecution produced only three witnesses who had placed money in Campbell’s hands: Dewey Clark, Campbell’s personal assistant; Dan DeBardelaben, a longtime friend and golfing partner; and Joseph Reid, a former deputy chief operating officer. Reid testified he raised illegal donations and gave them – some in cash – to Campbell. DeBardelaben, a city subcontractor, said he gave Campbell three payments totaling $50,000. Clark said he gave Campbell $50,000 from adult club owner Michael Childs, who was seeking to get a liquor license for a new club. Childs never got the license or his money back. But the jurors just didn’t think the witnesses on the corruption charges were credible. “Everyone had a deal,” said one unidentified female witness who called into the Frank Ski and Wanda Show Morning Show on WVEE V-103. She and another unidentified female witness claimed they were also disapproved of the prosecution putting two of Campbell’s mistresses on the stand. “That had nothing to do with the case,” one of them said. Juror Renita Sower, who talked to two television stations, said Dewey Clark, Campbell’s former right-hand man, was not credible at all. “Dewey Clark, he was an actor. He acted his part that he had to act when he came into the courtroom and we didn’t find him credible,” she said. Clark, who sobbed on the stand and said that he still loved Campbell “like a brother,” called into the Frank and Wanda Show from out of town and said that he testified against his former friend and boss because it appeared that Campbell was trying to make him the fall guy. “I would have taken charges for the mayor if the mayor had asked me, but he never asked me,” Clark said. “What he did was he tried to set me up to take the whole damn fall. He thought it was only going to be the situation with Michael Childs. I did not start the investigation. I did not go to the FBI. If you look back over the trial, everything the mayor’s attorneys said about me was a lie.” But when it came to the question of tax evasion, it was a slam dunk for the prosecution. “We had no problem with that,” said the female juror. “He did admit that he gambled and that he won a lot of money gambling, but none of that was reported on his income tax.” Perhaps the most damning evidence of Campbell’s tax evasion and the huge amounts of cash he obviously had to spend was that in 1999, he only withdrew $69 out his bank account the entire year. “But then when he found out he was under investigation, it swung back up to about $20,000 a year,” said Assistant U.S. attorney Sally Yates. “Obviously, it is a difficult day for me and my family,” Campbell said outside the courthouse following the verdict. “I’m gratified to a degree that my honor was restored because the charges of corruption were rejected. I was proven innocent of the substantial charges.” When asked about the tax conviction, Campbell replied, “It’s just an oversight. I am a sloppy record-keeper.” Despite the convictions on tax evasion, Campbell’s attorneys insist that the federal prosecutors cannot claim victory. “They weren’t successful,” said attorney Jerry Froelich. “They didn’t prove their case.” But the lead prosecutor on the case sees it differently. “I think what fills my mind, and I think the whole team’s mind, is the fact that Bill Campbell is a convicted felon, and that he’s going to prison, and that’s as it should be,” said prosecutor Yates. Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who testified on behalf of the defense, said that Black-elected officials have a tough time in America because they have been considered corrupt even if there was no evidence pointing to such a fact. “What I think about it is that almost any black-elected official is guilty until he proves himself innocent,” said Young. “And, if they line up the whole weight of the federal government, the FBI and all the prosecution power of the state of Georgia and the United States government behind anybody they can break them down.”