JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.
Three potential new witnesses were vetted by federal prosecutors and defense attorneys Friday, to determine if they will testify in the trial of ex-JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and ex-CFO Ryan Wannemacher. The two are on trial for their part in creating a controversial bonus plan, called a performance unit plan, which prosecutors say would have made them millions if they could pair its implementation with a sale of JEA.
The judge ultimately decided to allow two witnesses to testify: Ex-Chief Administrative Officer Herschel Vinyard, and Vice President of Human Resources Jon Kendrick.
The third proposed witness, the only voting member of the 2019 JEA board who hasn't appeared yet, Camille Lee-Johnson, will not testify in front of the jury, after prosecutors made the decision to excuse her from returning to court.
Though she will not have to appear before the jury, Lee-Johnson's testimony, or lack thereof, was noteworthy. Prosecutors allowed her attorney to sit with her during her testimony and counsel her on which questions to respond to.
Attorney says Lee-Johnson 'forgot' time at JEA
She had filed a motion to invoke her fifth amendment rights without appearing before the court, which Judge Brian Davis denied, requiring her to come in and invoke her rights in response to individual questions. Her attorney, Vincent Citro, wrote in the motion that she had "quickly forgotten" her nearly-two-year tenure at JEA because she had to completely focus on her business. "Said another way, the JEA board position was a volunteer position and something she did not focus on after resigning," Citro wrote.
Lee-Johnson was the chair of the compensation committee at JEA, and was involved in presentations about the performance unit plan shown to the jury on video. She refused to answer when asked what being the chair of the Compensation Committee entailed.
She essentially refused to recount any details of her time at JEA, invoking her fifth amendment rights in response to nearly every question. One question she did answer: When asked what a performance unit was, she responded, "I don't know."
She told the defense she did not know the meaning behind emails she had written, including one where she identified herself as the administrator of the bonus plan, and said she was handing over that power to Zahn.
She also said she did not know who Willis Towers Watson, a consulting firm that worked to help create JEA's compensation plan, was, and claimed not to recognize Kendrick. When shown a video of herself sitting with Lynne Rhode from the city's general counsel, she said she did not recall Rhode's name.
She refused to answer several other questions about evidence that has already been presented to the jury, including when she was asked if she approved the resolution that allowed for the performance unit plan to be pursued. The video of the board unanimously voting to pass the resolution has been played repeatedly.
Here are some other questions she pleaded the fifth in response to:
- What is an invitation to negotiate?
- Were you the administrator of the performance unit plan?
- Do you recognize (the resolution that allowed the performance unit plan to be created)?
- Did you receive any kind of PowerPoint presentation with a slide deck in respect to a long-term incentive plan?
- Did you talk with Zahn before the July 23rd board meeting (the meeting where the resolution was passed)?
- Were you trying to help JEA executives become wealthy?
- Did you support substantial payouts in the event of a sale of JEA that would net $4-5 billion?
- Did you support Aaron Zahn getting a payout from this program?
- Did Aaron Zahn tell you anything about his expectation about receiving money from this program?
Vinyard, Kendrick will testify
One witness who will now be called to testify in front of the jury is Herschel Vinyard -- who the defense told jurors they would not hear from during opening statements.
Vinyard's name has come up on the cross exam for nearly every witness, Federal Prosecutor Tysen Duva said when arguing to add him to the witness list. He wanted to call Vinyard to dispel this idea, saying that in reality, Vinyard only knew "half" of what was going on.
Vinyard has been referenced on "running point" on the bonus plan, Duva says.
Because he is an attorney, the defense has referred to Vinyard as providing legal council JEA several times throughout the trial. Despite being a lawyer by trade, Vinyard was not acting as an attorney representing JEA during his time as CAO.
During his testimony Friday, Vinyard repeatedly stressed that he is an environmental lawyer and did not understand, or concern himself, with the math.
He also expressed that he did not approve of the plan, and pushed for further legal review. He wanted the state's attorney general to review the plan, because he was still suspicious of possible illegality, despite endorsements from the Office of General Council and two outside law firms.
Vinyard said he told Zahn, "If you make $1 off of this, then the public will light themselves on fire."
If he knew Zahn stood to make millions, he said, he would have left JEA.
The other witness who was admitted Friday was Jon Kendrick, then-vice president of human resources at JEA.
During previous testimony and during his hearing Friday, Kendrick said that he expressed concerns to consulting attorney Kevin Hyde that the plan may not be legal, or ethical. Hyde assured him it was, he said, but he warned him there could be "political blowback."
Like almost every JEA employee who was asked -- excluding only then-COO Melissa Dykes -- Kendrick said he did not know if anyone stood to receive massive payouts from the plan.
Duva said Kendrick's testimony disproves the defense's presentation of Kendrick as a "circuit breaker," a term used throughout the trial to mean someone who was safeguarding the plan and would have noticed if anything was awry. He pointed out that like Vinyard and several others, Kendrick was new to JEA at the time, and said he often didn't know what he was looking at when presenting on the plan.
The trial will continue at 9 a.m. Monday, with the defense to begin calling their witnesses after Vinyard and Kendrick's testimony.