Posted on 06/30/2005 4:59:11 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
The Prosecution told the jury "You cannot hide from the tapes." And they didn't!
VIDEO CLIP OF VERDICT ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY, HERE A terrific clip that shows federal agents raiding East St. Louis City Hall!
** All five defendants are found guilty! **
Kelvin Ellis (on left) will also be tried for attempted murder of a government witness. The witness had threatened to expose a prosititution ring Ellis was running out of East St. Louis City Hall. Mr. Ellis spent time in prison for abusing a city post before becoming the Director of Regulatory Affairs in East St. Louis. Charles Powell, Jr. (on right) is the Democratic Party Chairman in East St. Louis.
* The defendants were found guilty on all counts! *
"This is a wake-up call for East St. Louis," said juror LaMont Reed Jr. of East St. Louis. "I've seen this corruption all my life."
The defendants were found guilty on all counts following a four-week trial in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis.
Four of the defendants -- Jessie Lewis, Sheila Thomas, Yvette Johnson and former city official Kelvin Ellis -- were found guilty of conspiracy to commit election fraud and election fraud. All worked for the Democratic Party during the election last November.
Democratic Party boss and former City Councilman Charlie Powell was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit election fraud.
The five were charged with paying voters up to $10 a vote to vote for Democratic candidates during the Nov. 2 general election.
The jury deliberated about five and a half hours before returning the verdicts.
The Federal Court Trial started on June 1, 2005 on the 5 East St. Louis Democrats accused of voter fraud. The East St. Louis Democratic Party was given $67,000 before the November 2nd election to "Get Out the Vote!"
More on the verdict here and here.
This is how the prosecution left the jurors yesterday in the East Louis Voter Fraud Trial.
In closing arguments on Tuesday, the prosecution again went over the evidence presented during the trial including the taped recordings by the federal witnesses and East St. Louis Democratic election workers:
Carr replayed many of the audiotapes the jury had previously heard of conversations Youngblood and McIntosh had with the defendants. Carr used the tapes to support his theory the five defendants conspired to buy votes for $5 and $10 apiece to elect Democrat Mark Kern the St. Clair County Board chairman in the Nov. 2 election.
"But there was a perception in East St. Louis he was racist," said Carr, adding this had upped the price for bringing voters to the polls on Election Day.
Which explains why the St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee sent $79,000 to East St. Louis Democratic precinct committeemen just before the election, Carr said.
"To make sure Mr. Kern was elected -- that's what this conspiracy was about," Carr said. "This was business as usual in East St. Louis on election day."
Kern, the former mayor of Belleville, narrowly won the race for County Board chairman, thanks to winning more than 82 percent of the vote in East St. Louis.
Kern, who has not been charged with a crime, has denied any wrongdoing.
Other places you MIGHT NOT SEE this story:
I searched the Washington Post for "fraud", "guilty" and "powell"...no hits. I looked in the Politics section. Nothing.
The NY Times has an AP wire article on its website, but nothing on the main page and no indication whether they put anything in the print edition.
Now. Let's guess what kind of play this would have gotten if 5 REPUBLICANS had been convicted of fraud, conspiracy and lying to investigators. Not to mention, wasn't there talk of killing a witness?
Vote Fraud ping!
Read it here!
(You won't see it in the papers.)
Thanks very much for the ping.
ANOTHER example of the anti-freedom Democratic Crime Syndicate in action in The United States of America.
I did a search and came up with NUMEROUS articles about massive voter fraud, etc., by the DNC all over the USA, not just this case. WHY IS NONE OF THIS ON THE MAIN STREAM NEWS??????????
Why ask a question to which you already KNOW the answer...? :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.