Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations today in the trial of a D.C. clerk charged with shaking down business owners and residents who needed her help to clear up licenses and fines.
Ikela Dean, a former clerk for the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, is charged with demanding bribes in exchange for dropping fines she had levied against businesses and for approving business licenses. Closing arguments are scheduled to wrap up in Judge Reggie Walton’s courtroom today.
But Walton handed Dean a victory Thursday when he tossed out 12 of the 14 counts against her. Walton said that prosecutors hadn’t proved their case and acquitted Dean.
Dean has been fired by DCRA, but the agency has struggled to clean itself up after decades of corruption and abuse.
Agency spokesman Mike Rupert said Thursday that the consumer agency was on the mend. “Things change,” he told The Examiner.
In its own way, Dean’s prosecution is proof of the reform at DCRA, Rupert said.
“We were the ones who turned her in,” he said. “This is really a success story. She only got away with a couple of thousand dollars.”
Jurors almost didn’t get to weigh the evidence. After Walton dismissed the 12 counts against her, a weeping Dean tried to plead guilty to the last two counts. But her voice cracked often, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Walton said he wouldn’t consider a plea.
“I don’t accept guilty pleas from people who are innocent,” he said, while jurors were waiting in an antechamber. “You seem to be denying any wrongdoing.”
In his closing arguments, defense lawyer Antoini Jones attacked the prosecution’s case, repeatedly saying that prosecutors had failed to make their case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lionel Andre will get the last word in Walton’s courtroom this morning.
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