Mose Oliver Jefferson (August 28, 1942 – May 12, 2011) was a member of the New Orleans family that includes his younger brother, former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson.Stephanie Grace—in a column titled "Mose: Consultant or Conspirator"—analyzes various suppositions of symbiotic interfaces between the two brothers' alleged legal improprieties (Times-Picayune, July 21, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B5). On 21 August 2009, Mose Jefferson was convicted on four felony counts of bribery.Michael Luke, "Mose Jefferson guilty on four counts" reported by WWL-TV New Orleans Channel 4 (CBS), August 21, 2009 (accessed August 22, 2009).
Background Mose Jefferson left his native Lake Providence, Louisiana, to join his older sister Betty Jefferson in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended Marshall High School but dropped out to join the U.S. Air Force in 1959. After being honorably discharged and returning to civilian life, he was convicted of a $450 robbery and served 9 months in Stateville Correctional Center, being released in 1967. He then became a Democratic Party field lieutenant with the political organization of Robert Shaw and his brother William Shaw, the latter of whom served in the Illinois Senate from 1982 to 2002.Gordon Russell, "Mose Jefferson, William's brother, was the first to taste victory in politics... behind the scenes" in Times-Picayune (New Orleans), May 31, 2009, Metro Edition, pp. A1, A12.
Legal difficulties
On July 22, 2009 — during the 16-indictments trial of Mose Jefferson's brother, Congressman William J. Jefferson, before U.S. judge T. S. Ellis III — lead prosecutor Mark Lytle presented a chart which showed money flowing from Jigawa State in Nigeria to Arkel Sugar in Baton Rouge to pay for a study of the feasibility of Arkel building a sugar plant there, to the coffers of Providence Lake, a company controlled by the congressman's brother Mose Jefferson, to BEP, another company controlled by Mose Jefferson, and on to Harvard University, where it helped pay expenses for Jelani Jefferson, one of the congressman's daughters.Jonathan Tilove & Bruce Alpert, "Jefferson's defense may wrap up before lunch" in Times-Picayune, July 23, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, pp. A3 (full article is on pp. A1, A3). Cf. Jonathan Tilove & Bruce Alpert, "William Jefferson took care of brother, Mose, witness says" in Times-Picayune, July 16, 2009. On August 6, 2009, National Public Radio's newsmagazine All Things Considered reported that the companies owned by Mose Jefferson served no purpose other than to facilitate and obscure the movement of money.
On August 5, 2009, William J. Jefferson was convicted in the Virginia court on 11 of the 16 felony counts.See William J. Jefferson#Indictment and trial for details and sources. Four days later, on August 9, in an article starting on the front page and extending for almost the entirety of another page, Laura Maggi analyzed Mose Jefferson's imputed connection with the criminal behaviors on which William J. Jefferson had been convicted.Laura Maggi "Jefferson family tree is shaken: Mighty political organization falls to legal assault portraying corruption" in Times-Picayune, August 9, 2009, Metro Edition, pp. A1, A18. Maggi described Mose Jefferson as "the man responsible for running the Progressive Democrats street operation" (p. A18). See also Stephanie Grace, "Another Jefferson on trial" in Times-Picayune, August 11, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B5.
In 2009, while other members of the Jefferson family were facing indictment or trial on various corruption charges, Mose Jefferson faced two trials. Originally a racketeering trial was to begin on August 3, 2009, followed by a bribery trial on August 10. On July 28, 2009, the sequence changed, the bribery trial remaining on August 10, 2009, and the racketeering trial moving to January 25, 2010.
Bribery accusations In the bribery allegations Mose Jefferson was accused of paying Orleans Parish School Board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms $140,000 in exchange for her support of adopting a software-based teaching system sold by Mose Jefferson. Brooks-Simms accepted the money but, on getting caught, entered into a plea-bargain to testify (along with two other witnesses) against Mose Jefferson, including cooperating with investigators in recording certain conversations she had with Mose Jefferson."Mose Jefferson asks for trial delay" in Times-Picayune, June 4, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B3 (web version = "Mose Jefferson seeks trial delay"). According to CBS News, the software sale was just part of a set of schemes wherein Brooks-Simms steered $14 million in sales toward a company which paid Mose Jefferson $913,000 in commissions.John Bresnahan, "William Jefferson's brother indicted on corruption charges from N.O. school probe" (April 2, 2008).
Racketeering accusations Racketeering charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) involved Mose Jefferson and Renée Gill Pratt,John Pope, "Gill Pratt named to SUNO Cabinet" in Times-Picayune, May 28, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, pp. A1, A11 (web version = Gill Pratt will sit on SUNO Cabinet). Mose Jefferson's "long-time companion" in a relationship described as being "as close as it gets" by columnist Stephanie Grace.Stephanie Grace, "Jefferson grip on SUNO isn't what it once was" in Times-Picayune, June 2, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B5. The indictment alleged that Gill Pratt, a former state senator and member of the New Orleans City Council (defeated in 2006 by Stacy Head), had assisted Mose Jefferson in obtaining government grants for humanitarian causes managed by him, his sister Betty Jefferson, and Betty Jefferson's daughter Angela Coleman, whereupon the Jeffersons unduly used some of the money for personal interests. Betty Jefferson and Angela Coleman were additional defendants in the racketeering trial."SUNO advisor angers Jindal" in Advocate (Baton Rouge), May 29, 2009, p. 15A.
Pre-trial Motions On June 3, 2009, Mose Jefferson requested that the racketeering charge be postponed because of the then-potential time overlap with the trial on bribery charges (both trials originally being docketed to begin in August). The request for delay was probably mooted, however, by new charges arraigned on June 5, effectuating postponement of one trial (the racketeering trial) by request of the court.
Potential change in defense attorneys The situation was further complicated by an implication that Mose Jefferson needed to obtain a new lawyer, in that Arthur "Buddy" Lemann, according to U.S. attorney Daniel Friel, faced a conflict of interest in having once represented Stacy Simms, daughter of Ellenese Brooks-Simms. Lemann was to represent Mose Jefferson in the racketeering case. Stacy Simms had assisted her mother in laundering the bribe (in the other case), through Stacy's bank account and, after pleading guilty to the felony, joined her mother in becoming a witness for the prosecution of Mose Jefferson. Lemann (arguing that "the very inclusion of allegations related to another pending indictment is improper") had objected that the racketeering indictment described a relationship to the (undecided) bribery case in that part of the alleged racketeering involved Gill Pratt's supposed obtaining of $300,000 for a couple of private schools so that they could buy the software which Mose Jefferson, with Ellenese Brooks-Simms' help, also sold to the public schools; according to the indictment, Mose Jefferson's commission on the sales to the private schools was $30,000, of which Gill Pratt pocketed $3500.Laura Maggi, "Mose Jefferson may need a new lawyer: Fed prosecutors cite conflict of interest" in Times-Picayune, June 5, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B3. "It's not RICO, it's wacko"—said Lemann on June 5 as he objected to the move to separate him from the racketeering case.Lemann quoted in Michelle Krupa, "Ex-N.O. official pleads innocent" in Times-Picayune, June 6, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, pp. A1, A11 (quote from Lemann appears on p. A11).
Lemann himself was not Mose Jefferson's original attorney; Lemann had replaced Ike Spears, who had earlier been disqualified on a conflict of interest inherent in his having previously represented Brenda Jefferson Foster, younger sister of Mose and William J. Jefferson. Brenda Jefferson Foster had entered a guilty plea in the racketeering case and obtained a promise of leniency in exchange for agreeing to testify against her siblings.
As of June 6, 2009, Mose Jefferson's attorney in the bribery case continued to be Mike Fawer, "another pugnacious defense attorney" as described by the Times-Picayune.
Political allegations by defenders On June 8, 2009, Lemann called the racketeering case "a political prosecution initiated by the office of a Republican prosecutor against a minority neighborhood association led by the Jefferson family" and asked for the case to be dismissed as being politically motivated. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten claimed to be "not surprised to see that again" in reference to Lemann's having made allegations of prosecutorial political or racial bias when defending former mayor Marc Morial's administrator Kerry DeCay, who was convicted and spent 9 years in federal incarceration."Mose Jefferson asks judge to dismiss case" in Times-Picayune, June 8, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B2 (web version = Mose Jefferson wants case dismissed: Lawyer calls case 'accident of birth'").
Indigence claim Lemmon referred to magistrate judge Louis Moore Jr. the question of whether Mose Jefferson should be declared indigent, a status conference on that question set for July 28. Fawer and Lemann both asked Moore to declare Mose Jefferson indigent because a building he owns on New Orleans' Loyola Avenue was put on hold by U.S. attorney Jim Letten. Fawer and Lemann had intended to use the building as a "means of obtaining payment for their services"; but Moore, on August 6, 2009, cited that Mose Jefferson owns a New Orleans East house which he used as collateral for his bond pending trial. According to Laura Maggi of the Times-Picayune on Mose Jefferson's wherewithal to pay defense lawyers, "Moore pointed out that Jefferson could give up the bond on the house and go to jail"; Moore denied the request for indigence.Laura Maggi "Judge doesn't buy indigence plea" in Times-Picayune, August 7, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B3. Letten's office had put the Loyola Avenue property on hold because of concerns over its potential forfeiture if involved in the felony counts associated with Mose Jefferson's brother William J. Jefferson.
Requests for delay At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle on June 17, 2009, lawyers for Betty Jefferson and Angela Coleman requested a delay from the August 3, 2009, start date for the racketeering trial; at the same hearing, however, lawyers for Gill Pratt and Mose Jefferson requested that the racketeering trial begin as scheduled on August 3.Laura Maggi, "Gill Pratt, Jefferson push for August trial" in Times-Picayune, June 18, 2009, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B3 (web version = Gill Pratt, Mose Jefferson push to keep August trial date).