Whipped Cream Difficulties

A while back, I wrote about Burnet County Judge James Oakley, who had just been indicted on both felony and misdemeanor charges.

A jury found him not guilty of one charge, and a judge threw out the other charges. However, a panel of judges from the Third Court of District Appeals recently ruled that judge “erred” in his decision.

Judge Oakley was also reprimanded by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct earlier this month.

One of the things he’s accused of is removing the lock to Justice of the Peace Lisa Whitehead’s courtroom door. Whitehead ended up filing a formal complaint over safety concerns after she said she could not find a “workable solution” with Oakley.
Oakley also faces allegations of sexual harassment from Whitehead that stem from 2023 and for creating a “hostile work environment.”

Judge Oakley resigned on Wednesday. For what it may be worth, the text of his reprimand is included in the linked KXAN article.

You know, there’s been so much corruption in the Eric Adams administration, I’ve kind of lost track myself.

But being as this is possibly the most corrupt administration in the history of New York City, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel like doing two flaming hyenas in one day?

Well, do I, punk?

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the former top aide to Mayor Adams, was officially indicted today, along with her son and two “businessmen”.

Allegedly, they were getting paid by check, “which her son cashed and used to buy a Porsche and other luxury items”.

Ms. Lewis-Martin, her son, Glenn Martin II, and the businessmen were charged in a four-count indictment with participating in “a long-running bribery, money-laundering and conspiracy scheme.” The indictment accuses Ms. Lewis-Martin of using her official position to “illegally influence Department of Buildings and other city decisions” in exchange for the cash and other benefits for her and her son.

…

Prosecutors also accused Ms. Lewis-Martin and her son of accepting financial support from the two businessmen for a clothing line and a Chick-fil-A franchise in exchange for her using her city position to assist with their projects.
As evidence, prosecutors quoted from telephone conversations involving Ms. Lewis-Martin, her son and others, suggesting they may have wiretapped one or more of the defendants’ phones.

…

The businessmen charged alongside her were pursing construction projects that included work on a rooftop bar, the Glass Ceiling, and a hotel, both in Manhattan, and they had asked her to help move the projects through the city’s tangled bureaucracy.
After Mr. Dwivedi and Mr. Vaid paid Mr. Martin $100,000 in August 2023, he deposited the money into a joint account he shared with Ms. Lewis-Martin, prosecutors said. Each businessman made a $50,000 payment to Mr. Martin; one had the words “personal loan” written in the check memo, according to prosecutors, who called that an attempt to conceal a bribe and said the defendants had not provided any evidence that loan payments were ever made.

…

Prosecutors, in their narrative, included as an exhibit a picture of Mr. Martin in sunglasses, grinning in front of a gleaming black 2023 Porsche Panamera, a big red bow affixed to the hood. He paid $113,000 for the car, “something neither he nor Lewis-Martin could have funded without the bribe money,” the prosecutors wrote.

…

Prosecutors said Ms. Lewis-Martin used her son as an intermediary in an attempt to cover up her actions. Mr. Martin, 38, a professional D.J. who uses the name “Suave Luciano,” has worked at city events overseen by Mr. Adams’s administration, both when Mr. Adams was mayor and Brooklyn borough president.

Noted:

During the same period she was using Signal to field requests from Mr. Vaid and forward them to city buildings officials, Ms. Lewis-Martin set her Signal messages to disappear after an hour, prosecutors said.

COMSEC! Hurrah! Obviously not a perfect effort, but it has been so rare to see someone even trying to secure their communications, attention must be paid.

Oh. Her lawyer vigorously denies the charges:

“To think that a high-ranking city official would take a bribe in the form of a check deposited into a bank account defies common sense,” he said. “We look forward to the citizens of the City of New York, who Ingrid has served so admirably for decades, clearing her name after a trial.”

Ms. Lewis-Martin resigned over the weekend, apparently in anticipation of the indictment.

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested this morning.

Fernandes Anderson, 45, was indicted on five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, according to court records and a publicly available indictment.

One of the charges against her is that she gave a staff member a $13,000 bonus payment…most of which was then kicked back to Ms. Fernandes Anderson.

“At defendant Fernandes Anderson’s instructions, Fernandes Anderson and Staff Member A arranged to meet at a bathroom at City Hall where Staff Member A would hand approximately $7,000 in cash to Fernandes Anderson,” court documents said.
The two exchanged texts ahead of the meeting and “shortly following these texts, Staff Member A handed Fernandes Anderson Approximately $7,000 in cash at a bathroom in City Hall,” court documents said.

Ms. Fernandes Anderson makes $115,000 a year as a city councilor. That’s decent money, in my opinion, but the cost of living in Boston is probably much higher than it is in Austin. And Ms. Fernandes Anderson has money problems, per the report.

Those money problems include $5,000 she owes “campaign finance regulators”, as she also has a problem with hiring relatives (her son and daughter) for her staff. “Staff Member A” is also a relative (“but was not an immediate family member”), but Ms. Fernandes Anderson denied that when “A” was hired.

Boston Globe (archived). The Globe mentions her party affiliation in paragraph 7, while the Herald doesn’t mention it at all.

Winter is coming, if it hasn’t showed up already in your neck of the woods. We need something to keep us warm, and what better than flaming hyenas?

The mayor of Jacksonville, Mississippi, Antar Lumumba, has been indicted on federal bribery charges.

Also indicted: Aaron Banks, who is a councilman, and Jody Owens, the county DA.

I missed this, but another city council member, Angelique Lee, pled guilty to “conspiracy to commit bribery” charges in August. I get the impression she hasn’t been sentenced yet, and I’m wondering if she’s now a “cooperating witness”.

Owens is facing eight felony counts; Lumumba is facing five felony counts and Banks is facing two felony counts.
Owens faces one count of conspiracy, three counts of federal program bribery, one count of use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of making a false statement.
Lumumba faces one count of conspiracy, one count of federal program bribery, one count of use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, one count of wire fraud and one count money laundering.
Banks faces one count of conspiracy and three counts of federal program bribery.

…

According to the recently unsealed indictment, Owens facilitated over $80,000 in bribe payments to Lumumba, Lee and Banks in exchange for their agreement to take official action on the city’s long-sought after hotel development project across the street from the Jackson Convention Complex. It is a project the city has been trying to build since the mid-2000s. The city released a statement of qualifications, or SOQ, for the project on Jan. 31.
Owens accepted at least $115,000 in cash and “promises of future financial benefits” from two developers from Nashville who turned out to be undercover FBI agents. The agents used Owens’ relationships with the elected officials “to act as an intermediary” for the bribes. Smith helped Owens facilitate the bribes.
“Owens, Banks, Lumumba, Lee and Smith were not aware that, in reality, the Developers were working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the indictment states.

…

On Jan. 11, Banks allegedly requested $50,000 in exchange for his future vote in favor of the “developers” bogus real estate company that was bidding on the city’s SOQ. In February, Banks allegedly accepted an “initial payment” of $10,000 from the undercover agents through Owens, along with a promise of an employment opportunity for a family member. Additionally, Lee accepted nearly $20,000 in February and March also in exchange for her vote in favor of the undercover agents’ company.
During the meeting, Owens dismissed Banks then told the agents:
“We never give them the asking price. I buy [expletive for women’s genitalia], I buy cars, I buy cows, I buy drugs, whatever. My point is like [Banks] need 50, you get 30. He gets installments. That’s my game,” according to the indictment.

…

On Feb. 12, 2024, Owens arranged a dinner with the agents, Lumumba and Smith. After introductions, Owens told Lumumba, “I’ve done background checks. They’re not FBI by the way.” He also told the mayor the agents’ focus “shifted” to the hotel project across from the convention center.

…

Owens then allegedly stated:
“I don’t give a [expletive] where the money comes from. It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don’t give a [expletive]. I’m a whole DA. [Expletive] that [expletive]. My job, as I understand it, with a little paperwork, is to get this deal done, and get it done most effectively … We can take dope boy money, I don’t give a [expletive]. But I need to clean it and spread it. I can do it in here. That’s why we have businesses. To clean the money. Right? I don’t give a [expletive]. You give us cash, we deposit it and give it back that way. That’s easy.”

NYT coverage. I think this is better organized for non-locals, but it lacks a lot of the more colorful quotes from DA Owens.

I’ve been struggling all day to get time to myself to go through the coverage.

Right now, it looks like the charges against Mayor Adams involve…wait for it…yes, the Turks! I think I called that one.

The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday morning, follows an investigation that started in 2021 and has focused at least in part on whether he conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign campaign contributions and whether he took official actions on its behalf.

…

Mr. Adams had “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” since at least 2014, when he was Brooklyn borough president, according to the indictment.
The benefits included luxury travel — free and discounted Turkish Airlines tickets and free meals and hotel rooms — from wealthy foreigners and at least one Turkish government official, prosecutors said. He traveled on the airline even when it was inconvenient, they said, including a 2017 flight to France from New York that first stopped in Istanbul.

…

In exchange, prosecutors said, Mr. Adams pressured officials at the New York Fire Department to permit a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan despite safety problems. A Fire Department official overseeing the safety assessment said he was told he would lose his job if he did not follow the order.

Gracie Mansion was raided early this morning. And the feds took Mayor Adams cell phone (phones?). Again.

Reports I’ve seen say he doesn’t have to resign, and he can’t be recalled by the electorate. The only person who has the authority to remove him is Governor Hochul, and she hasn’t shown any inclination to do so yet.

“Here Are the Charges Eric Adams Faces, Annotated“. Yes, I’m burning a gift link for you, my loyal readers. But this is big.

Summary: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, solicit foreign contributions and accept bribes (1x), wire fraud (1x),
solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national (2x), and bribery (1x). That link includes the actual indictment, both annotated by the paper of record and the original unannotated PDF.

“Eric Adams promised to be a mayor such as New Yorkers have never seen. Much about him remains head-scratching.” Well, I wouldn’t say “never seen”, but most New Yorkers today probably weren’t alive during the days of Tammany Hall and “honest graft“. (Yeah, okay, Tammany Hall didn’t officially dissolve until 1967, but my impression is that it had ceased to be an influential organization long before that.)