Local
D.C. trial on bribery charges starts for licensing employee
By: Luke Reiter
Special to The Examiner
November 5, 2008
A D.C. employee forced businesses to pay her cash to have their licenses renewed, U.S. Attorney Lionel Andre said Tuesday in his opening statement in the bribery and extortion case against her.
Ikela Dean, 32, an employee in the Business Licensing Division of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, is being charged with 10 counts of bribery and four counts of extortion for payments she received from several hotels and nonprofit organizations from July to September 2007.
In each case, Dean told businesses seeking license renewals, generally for elevators, to pay the renewal fee by check, but then pay additional “late fees” in cash, according to an affidavit by FBI special agent Larry Stewart. Dean then would provide an officially validated receipt for the renewal fee and a similar, but non-validated, receipt for the cash, Stewart said.
Dean’s attorney, Antoini Jones, countered that Dean committed no crime, as all the late fees she required were legitimate.
However, the government’s complaint against Dean says she should have directed payments toward the cashier’s office instead of handling them herself.
Marie-Helene Neptune, a former finance director at Omni Shoreham Hotel in Northwest Washington, testified that she had been in charge of paying the city when the hotel renewed its elevator certificates through Dean last year.
According to Neptune, Dean billed the hotel $2,736 for the licenses and an additional $1,500 in late fees, which she later lowered to a $1,050, as long as the fee was paid in cash. Neptune said she thought the demand for cash was unusual, and contacted another official in the department, who agreed with her.
The accusations against Dean add to the department’s already troubled record. In June, a former employee was sentenced to 60 days in jail for attempting to bribe a building inspector, and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has targeted the department for reform. In April 2007, Fenty told The Examiner that “everything” was wrong with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
Dean’s case is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. today.
Ikela Dean, 32, an employee in the Business Licensing Division of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, is being charged with 10 counts of bribery and four counts of extortion for payments she received from several hotels and nonprofit organizations from July to September 2007.
In each case, Dean told businesses seeking license renewals, generally for elevators, to pay the renewal fee by check, but then pay additional “late fees” in cash, according to an affidavit by FBI special agent Larry Stewart. Dean then would provide an officially validated receipt for the renewal fee and a similar, but non-validated, receipt for the cash, Stewart said.
Dean’s attorney, Antoini Jones, countered that Dean committed no crime, as all the late fees she required were legitimate.
However, the government’s complaint against Dean says she should have directed payments toward the cashier’s office instead of handling them herself.
Marie-Helene Neptune, a former finance director at Omni Shoreham Hotel in Northwest Washington, testified that she had been in charge of paying the city when the hotel renewed its elevator certificates through Dean last year.
According to Neptune, Dean billed the hotel $2,736 for the licenses and an additional $1,500 in late fees, which she later lowered to a $1,050, as long as the fee was paid in cash. Neptune said she thought the demand for cash was unusual, and contacted another official in the department, who agreed with her.
The accusations against Dean add to the department’s already troubled record. In June, a former employee was sentenced to 60 days in jail for attempting to bribe a building inspector, and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has targeted the department for reform. In April 2007, Fenty told The Examiner that “everything” was wrong with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
Dean’s case is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. today.
