JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Former U.S. Congresswoman Corrine Brown will be prosecuted a second time for alleged conspiracy, tax evasion and fraud, after her original conviction was overturned on appeal earlier this year.
Federal prosecutors announced Monday that they will retry the criminal case against the 74-year-old former lawmaker. Brown was represented Monday by Bill Kent, who said handled her appeal, who said "the government made a plea offer to Ms. Brown but she rejected it."
Brown said little going in and out of court, only that the case was in God's hands. She noted the day her conviction was overturned, May 6, was the National Day of Prayer.
"God is still on the job," she said.
Kent said he will not represent her going forward. Attorney Curtis Falgatter appeared at the defense table as well, and says he is in discussions with Brown about whether to serve as her attorney. He indicated that her ability to pay him would figure into that decision.
Because Brown’s conviction was reversed, she is asking that some $42,000 she has paid in forfeiture be returned. She says she needs to pay for her defense attorney. She said she's spent over a half-million dollars on her defense.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan agreed to continue the trail until the February trial term, though no specific date has been set. He also said he would consider whether to refund the money.
Leaving court with Brown, Falgatter said he hoped they could still reach a plea deal of some kind.
"All this is quite a waste of time, unfortunately. But hopefully we can all work something out to everyone's satisfaction and not spend a few million dollars of taxpayers’ money again."
Asked what an acceptable plea deal would look like, Falgatter said, “Dropping the charges would be great. But certainly, felonies are not.”
Brown was convicted in 2017 on 18 counts stemming from what prosecutors said was a sham charity that she used as a personal slush fund. That conviction was reversed in May by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the trial judge improperly removed a juror who said he was being guided by “The Holy Ghost” during deliberations.
Brown was sentenced to five years in prison. She served a little over two before being released in April 2020 due to her age, COVID and unnamed health concerns.
A former prosecutor who spoke off the record said the cost of retrying the case would be in the $400-500,000 range, mostly for salaries of prosecutors, agents and court-appointed defense lawyers. But the former prosecutor said cost likely was not a consideration in deciding whether to retry the case. Time could be a factor, however. Tysen Duva, the lead prosecutor on the Brown case, is also overseeing the JEA criminal investigation, which is currently before a federal grand jury.
Both Brown’s former chief of staff Ronnie Simmons and the charity’s director Carla Wiley pleaded guilty to related charges and have already completed their prison terms.