For a month now, a U.S. District Court jury has listened to eye-opening tales of citycorruption and yawn-inducing explanations of complex business deals in the trial of a prominent developer that has revealed much about the workings of D.C. government.
In the trial of Douglas Jemal, his son Norman and his right-hand man, Blake Esherick, prosecutors are trying to portray the flamboyant developer as a common thief who bribed a D.C. official to steer million-dollar contracts his way. Jemal’s high-powered defense team is trying to show that the business man was simply giving gifts to a friend and trying to help District leaders out of their own political and financial problems.
The prosecution’s star witness is an admitted felon, Michael LaRusso, a refrigerator-sized man with a large appetite for fine food, expensive clothing and lavish vacations.
Over three days of testimony, LaRusso described how Jemal showered him with trips to Las Vegas, meals at D.C.’s finest restaurants, use of a limousine, a pair of cowboy boots and a Rolex watch. One gift included a $10,000 in cash delivered in an envelope, he said.
In return, LaRusso testified, he finagled sweetheart contracts for Jemal and falsified invoices so that his company, Douglas Development Corp., received nearly $1 million for work it never performed. He also guided contracts worth millions of dollars to Jemal and tried to get the city to pay $13 million for an impound lot that Jemal had paid $1.5 million for three years earlier.
That’s when city council members started asking questions, the deal was nixed and LaRusso was fired.
The defense has attempted to put the deals in a context that is favorable to Jemal.
On Thursday, the defense submitted e-mails that showed how much pressure the District was under to find an impound lot. In one electronic exchange, LaRusso’s bosses urged top managers to find an impound and complete the deal: “The mayor is taking a beating in the press due to booted cars cluttering up the neighborhoods,” said one missive from the city administrator. Finding a way to move the project along, he wrote in another, “would save us no end in grief.”
