Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Guity on 20 of 21 Counts of Bribery & Corruption Charges

Ray Nagin, the former Democrat Mayor of New Orleans (The Chocolate City) has been found guilty on 20 of 21 counts of bribery, fraud and corruption charges.

Ray Nagin, the former two-term mayor of New Orleans indicted after he left office, was convicted Wednesday of 20 federal corruption charges for illegal dealings with city vendors, dating back to 2004. A jury delivered its verdict just before 1 p.m., after six hours of deliberations that followed a nine-day trial.

Nagin, 57, joins a list of Louisiana elected officials convicted of misdeeds while in office, but he is New Orleans’ first mayor to be convicted of public corruption. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could face a 20-year prison term, possibly more, lawyers have said

CNN:

Ray Nagin came into the mayor’s office in New Orleans as an avowed scourge of corruption and led the city through the worst disaster of its modern history.

He left a federal courthouse a convict Wednesday, after a jury found him guilty of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and other favors from businessmen looking for a break from his administration. Of the 21 counts against him, he was convicted of 20.

“He got a lot of media attention as being a reformer, a non-politician, first run for office — a businessman who was going to come in and get it right,” said Pat Fanning, a veteran New Orleans lawyer and no fan of the former two-term mayor.

After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, the onetime cable television executive would reassure people queasy about sending taxpayer money to a state with an epic history of corruption by telling them, “Google me. You’re not going to find any of that in my record,” Fanning said, quoting Nagin. “Well, Google him now.”

Nagin, who left office in 2010, had little to say as he left the courthouse Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters only, “I maintain my innocence.” A small knot of supporters yelled, “Keep your head up” and “He’s just a patsy,” CNN affiliate WDSU reported.

UPDATE I: Ray Nagin juror: Defense should have put on more evidence.

To the juror who wished that Nagin’s defense team had provided more evidence during the ex-New Orleans’ Mayor’s trial … the answer is, because they couldn’t.

A juror wished Ray Nagin’s defense attorney put on more evidence to help his client in the federal corruption case that ended with convictions on 20 counts that could send the former New Orleans mayor to prison for 20 years, possibly more.

Speaking outside the federal courthouse after the verdict was read, Lisa Hamaker, a juror from St. Tammany Parish who described herself as a “stay-at-home-mom,” said she wished defense attorney Robert Jenkins put on more evidence. Much of the prosecution’s case went unchallenged, she said

The Gateway Pundit has a list of the 20 charges that Nagin was found guilty.

Count 1: Conspiracy – Guilty
The charge: Creating, through a variety of bribes and kickbacks, “a scheme and artifice to defraud” the residents of New Orleans of his honest services as a public official. Many of the individual elements of this scheme make up the other 20 crimes with which Nagin was charged.
Maximum prison term: 5 years

Count 2: Bribery – Guilty
The charge: Accepting $60,000 from the three principals of Three Fold Consulting, an engineering firm, in exchange for special treatment.
Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 3: Bribery – Guilty
The charge: Accepting a $2,500 bribe from Rodney Williams, a principal in Three Fold Consulting, in exchange for favorable treatment.
Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 4: Bribery – Guilty
The charge: Accepting a shipment of granite from Frank Fradella’s company, Home Solutions, in exchange for favorable treatment.
Maximum prison term: 10 years

Read the rest here.