JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday sentenced former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown to five years in prison on fraud and other charges related to a purported charity for poor students that she used as a personal slush fund.
Brown, 71, was ordered to turn herself in to authorities no earlier than Jan. 8. She represented a Florida district that included Jacksonville during her nearly 25-year career.
Brown, a Democrat who was one of the first three African-Americans to be elected to Congress from Florida since Reconstruction, was convicted by a federal jury in May on 18 of the 22 charges against her, which included fraud, lying on her tax returns and on her congressional financial disclosures.
Prosecutors outlined a pattern of fraud by Brown and her top aide that included using hundreds of thousands of dollars from the One Door for Education Foundation for lavish parties, trips and shopping excursions.
Brown’s former chief of staff, Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, and One Door’s executive director Carla Wiley had accepted plea deals and testified against Brown. They were also sentenced Monday. Simmons was sentenced to four years in prison, followed by three years of probation, and Wiley received a one-year sentence following by three years of probation. They too were ordered to turn themselves in no earlier than Jan. 8.
Federal prosecutors said the three used One Door to bring in more than $800,000 between 2012 and 2016, including a high-profile golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass. The Virginia-based One Door only gave out one scholarship for $1,200 to an unidentified person in Florida, according to court documents.
Simmons told jurors that his boss ordered him to take cash and checks from One Door’s account on dozens of occasions and deposit the money into Brown’s personal account.
Brown testified in her own defense, saying she was left in the dark about the details of One Door’s money, and blamed the theft on Simmons.
Her attorneys argued for leniency at a hearing last month, saying Brown’s community work should mitigate her crimes.
Black woman goes to jail, white man goes to the Senate.
SNAFU. The new “Model” Policy for American Government.
America has 336 days to pull it’s head out and start fixing the problem
She never had a chance. I live in Atlantic Beach ( a part of Jax ) and I can say comfortably: she never had a chance. She was a legislator of little accomplishment, divisive as hell with a long history of rebukes for fraud, forgery and accepting bribes. That all caught up with her. She did what she was found guilty of. It wasn’t a first time. When it became obvious that she did she lost support all over Duval County. She was replaced by a candidate that made no bones about her unfitness for office. The Democrats are better off without her.
Don’t forget the Presidency.
45 did the same thing too.
I am not going to pile on, but Corrine Brown is one reason why the Florida Democratic Party is in such a mess. Brown is one of the Democratic legislators who, in cahoots with Republicans, actively tried to thwart a public referendum to make legislative apportionment less susceptible to gerrymandering. When Brown’s district was held to have been illegally gerrymandered, she sued to keep its original boundaries. Once upon a time I can believe that she sought office for a higher purpose, but after a while she started to view it as a personal right. No doubt that attitude factored into why she thought she could get away with running such an obvious sham charity.