The fate of flamboyant developer Douglas Jemal still rests in the hands of a U.S. District Court jury.
The jurors spent two and a half days last week poring over testimony and evidence from the five-week trial of one of the District’s most powerful developers, a businessman who invested in the city when others wouldn’t.
Jemal, 63, his son Norman, 37, and his right-hand man, Blake Esherick, 42, were charged with conspiring to bribe former D.C. government official Michael Lorusso with fine food, expensive clothing and lavish vacations in exchange for sweetheart real estate deals with the city.
The defendants face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. None of the men chose to testify.
The trial enters its sixth week today.
Prosecutors tried to portray Jemal as a common thief whose business was floundering. Jemal’s high-powered defense team tried to show that the businessman was simply giving gifts to a friend and trying to help District leaders out of their own political and financial problems.
