Gillum/Lettman-Hicks: Anatomy of an Acquittal

Get the Point!

Late yesterday, after a two week trial and nearly five full days of tense deliberations, a racially diverse jury of seven whites and five Blacks in the Northern District of Florida reached a consensus verdict that former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum was not guilty of count one, lying to the FBI, and per sources, were split by a 10-2 vote—10 to acquit with only two to convict—on the remaining 19 counts of conspiracy and wire fraud. 

The jury's 10-2 split ultimately led U. S. District Judge Allen Winsor to declare a mistrial and by so doing, ends round one of the highly publicized case against Gillum, the 2018 Florida Democratic Gubernatorial nominee who narrowly lost to Republican Ronald Desantis. The case included Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Gillum's chief campaign strategist who is a highly respected public relations expert, civil rights advocate, and long time Democratic Party operative.

Sharon Lettman-Hicks, a prominent Democratic Party politico, has worked directly for (or with) the last two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. 

While round one is done, whether there will be a round two on counts two through 19 remains to be seen; in the aftermath of yesterday's highly anticipated verdict Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Mulligan II told reporters that the government will try the case again, while defense lawyers, including Lettman-Hicks co-counsel Mutaqee Akbar, urged the government to let this matter rest for eternity. 

Attorney Mutaqee Akbar, flanked by Lettman-Hicks and her sweet mother, Barbara Lettman, addresses the media immediately following the verdict…

How did we get here?

Last June, I was summoned to Lettman Square, the original Florida A&M University Federal Credit Union building that Sharon Lettman-Hicks purchased over two decades ago to house her public relations firm, P&P Communications, for the initial meeting of her campaign for the Florida State Legislature in House District 8. The conference room was filled with mutual friends of mine and Lettman-Hicks, including former Mayor Andrew Gillum, the presider over that day's proceedings. 

Sharon Lettman-Hicks has owned the multi million dollar “Lettman Square” for years…

As assignments for the campaign were handed out, the optimism of that morning, one where Lettman-Hicks would step out of her campaign strategist comfort zone and become the candidate, was soon quelled when not long afterwards, she called me and said, "Chuckie, I just got a call from the FBI and was told that I have to surrender myself tomorrow morning and face arraignment on wire fraud charges.”

I had no clue that after these selfies were taken during the first campaign meeting for Sharon Lettman-Hicks, that my two old friends, including Mayor Gillum, would be arraigned in federal court a few days later…

While the breaking news was disappointing due to my knowing that Lettman-Hicks and Gillum had cooperated with the ordinarily secretive FBI's five year probe into alleged corruption in Tallahassee, one that was not so secret because it was heralded loudly by local conservative critics who I will not give the honor of even being named in this piece, knowing that the statute of limitations was only days away from lapsing, their indictments did catch me by surprise because I figured that the old adage,"no news is good news," surely applied in these cases. 

Well, it did not...

At the arraignment later that week, as I watched Lettman-Hicks and Gillum, both dressed impeccably, present before a packed courtroom of federal agents, the press, and onlookers fully shackled like some violent fugitives, I was left wondering how, precisely, did it come to this?

The Charges

During arraignment, Gillum and Lettman-Hicks were charged with taking donations from major campaign donors and using those funds to pay the former, an employee of the latter's P&P Communications, which he joined after resigning his position at the American Way Foundation when he decided to run for governor.

More specifically, the government, through undercover FBI agents, sought to entice then Mayor Gillum to accept campaign funds in exchange for favorable advocacy on fake land deals before the Tallahassee City Commission. The problem, at least for the federal sting operation, is that Gillum never took the bait, as jurors heard the former mayor's voice on tape adamantly saying that he would not accept such “pay to play” shenanigans.

As Gillum's main lawyer, David Markus, and Lettman Hicks’ lead counsel Alex Morris repeated during cross examinations and closing arguments, the government kept "shifting the goal posts," which means that once they realized that Gillum would not accept their bribery attempts, their focus then centered upon other areas, including the mayor's trip to New York City in 2016 where undercover agents purchased tickets to the hit Broadway musical Hamilton and provided them to the mayor, who thought the agents were his acquaintances, and his brother, Marcus Gillum. 

This picture that I took with Mayor Gillum was after breakfast one morning in 2018 during his run for governor. I post this because while I have known Andrew since he was a junior at Gainesville High School and I was a law student mentor at the University of Florida in the late 90’s, he adamantly refused to allow me to pay for his coffee while in campaign mode. I post this as further proof that my friend plays by the political rules even on a trivial matter like breakfast with a real friend…

Such is why Gillum's acquittal on count one, lying to the FBI about those Hamilton tickets, is huge because it shows that the foundation of their cases against both of the accused alleging corruption was built on sinking sand—not solid rock!

Moreover, with regards to counts two through 19, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, the fact that 10 of 12 jurors voted to acquit is the strongest signal yet that those charges are weak, too!

On those counts, prosecutors allege that Gillum and Lettman-Hicks illegally used $50,000 from Gillum's mayoral initiative called "Campaign to Defend Local Solutions," while also siphoning $60,000 from the Gillum for Governor Campaign’s GOTV (get-out-the-vote). Last, the government alleges that the pair illegally used $132,000 from billionaire Donald Sussman, a wealthy Democratic Party donor who provided $250,000 to the Gillum campaign. 

But to paraphrase another famous Democrat, former Secretary of State and presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, there was "no there, there," meaning, prosecutors are alleging crimes that are not even alleged by the so-called victims themselves!

For those unaware, in a typical fraud case, a victim can’t hardly wait for their day in court to tell a jury how their financial bottom lines have been harmed. But in the Gillum-Lettman-Hicks case, two weeks of oft pedantic and highly technical testimony from FBI agents left two major questions for lawyers, reporters, and onlookers alike: 1. "Who was harmed?" 2. "Where is the crime?" The answer? Nobody!

When Sharon Lettman-Hicks came onto the Andrew Gillum gubernatorial campaign in 2018, Gillum was in 4th or 5th place among Democrats vying for the nomination, depending upon which polling data you used. Within six weeks, she helped propel Gillum to #1—which he celebrated above…

Tallahassee Democrat veteran reporter Jeff Burlew perhaps memorialized it best yesterday when writing, "A lawyer for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a George Soros-founded organization, testified she did not have any evidence that funds were misused. A senior program officer for the New World Foundation told jurors he was not aware of any 'missing' money. A representative from the Opportunity to Learn Action Fund, an offshoot of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, said he trusted Gillum’s 'moral values' and considered him an 'honest person.'"

It is also important to note that several political strategists and accountants called by prosecutors testified that to the best of their knowledge, that there was nothing particularly illegal that was done by the accused in these matters, thus, my surprise that the two holdouts didn't see what the other 10 jurors did, which is that neither Gillum nor Lettman-Hicks were guilty of fraud!

And while it came during Lettman-Hicks' defense case late during the second week, Attorney Mutaqee Akbar called John Grayson, his client's certified public accountant who was subpoenaed by prosecutors to testify in their case, back to the stand where he confirmed that she "was a millionaire.” The importance of that one line is that Lettman-Hicks was endowed with liquidity and rental properties that the government overlooked in its attempts to paint her and Gillum as destitute and in desperate need to steal funds.

Aftermath

In the moments following the verdict, Attorney Akbar spoke briefly to the press, wisely saying that, “They weren't investigating a crime, they were investigating the person, Mayor Andrew Gillum. And Sharon Lettman-Hicks just got caught up in the cross fire."

Akbar (left), and Tallahassee Attorney Adner Marcelin emerge from the Federal Courthouse with Sharon Lettman-Hicks following yesterday's verdict…

Akbar, urging prosecutors to not move forward with a round two, forcefully declared, "Enough is enough!" 

Indeed!

When I consider that “enough is enough,” I am thinking about the ordeal that both the Gillum and Lettman-Hicks families have endured ever since last June when they were arrested. During a break in trial last week, I asked Gillum the basic "how are you doing" question, but his response was far from the perfunctory "fine" or "I'm ok." Gillum sighed, looked down, looked back up at me and said, "Brother, I am tired because I haven't had a full night's sleep since the day I was arrested."

There were no words that I could form to respond…

You see, I knew that Gillum and Lettman-Hicks were both tired, not just from a physical standpoint, but from the mental drain that occurs when you have spent your entire lives working hard within your crafts, only to have people assume the worst about your intentions and actions! 

I knew that they were tired from the rank speculation and incessant chatter on social and traditional media news sites from those who always conveniently forget that the accused are "innocent until proven guilty," which neither were so deemed in the court of public opinion during this nightmarish case. 

I knew that they were tired because they were separated during three weeks of trial from their children; Gillum, a husband and doting father of two boys and one little girl, and Lettman-Hicks, a wife and mother of a little boy, all in elementary school. 

But in their fatigue and anxiety about the figurative Sword of Damocles—the potential of 20 years or more in prison—which hovered over their heads in that Tallahassee courtroom, both of the accused drew heavily upon their Christian faith, and the family members and friends who filled the courtroom so heavily that in time, most of their nosey conservative critics stopped coming to court as regularly!

Every single day of this trial ordeal, I noticed the beautiful smiles of Lettman-Hicks' mother, Barbara Lettman, and R. Jai Gillum, Andrew's wife who celebrated her birthday yesterday by noting on Facebook that her husband's acquittal was the "best gift ever.”

For better, for worse, and for better again, the Gillums stand proudly together!

In an era in which Black Colleges and Black Greek Letter Organizations are often criticized by unknowing outsiders, I smiled each day when noticing the myriad “FAMUly" and HBCU alumni from across the South who were there to support Gillum and Lettman-Hicks, both proud graduates of Florida A&M University. Each day, the court was filled with the Ladies of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority like Carla Knight, Dedra Mitchell, Kelly Bailey, and countless others who showed up and showed out on behalf of their sorority sisters, Lettman-Hicks and Mrs. Gillum. Ditto for those hundreds of Deltas, Jack and Jill mothers, and Links members who could not come to the courthouse, but who followed the trial updates and kept both of the accused lifted in prayer day and night!

In an era in which church participation is often questioned, I was proud to notice that each day, Rev. Julius McAllister, the pastor of Tallahassee's historic Bethel AME, and scores of faithful members of the home church for the Gillums and my own family, provided a strong presence and his prayers of comfort and strength for his flock!

In an era in which the bonds of surrogate familial ties are often challenged, when I missed the first week of trial due to working alongside my and Lettman-Hicks’ Steel Steel Sharpens Steel co-host Tom Cunningham during the HCASC Black College Quiz Bowl tournament in Los Angeles, we were provided amazingly detailed updates by my Masonic Brother, Marvin Green, and our Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Brother David Johns, one of Lettman-Hicks' colleagues at the National Black Justice Coalition! 

The love on display between Carla Knight and Marvin Green with Sharon Lettman-Hicks following the verdict is priceless…

But in the end, when all was said and done yesterday, yesterday's victory was a pyrrhic one because to keep it real, both Gillum and Lettman-Hicks must now forge ahead and work to revive careers that have taken a huge hit due to these charges that they have successfully fought to date. 

Lettman Hicks, as she exited the courtroom with her lawyers told reporters that, "as much justice as possible is served...Thank God, Andrew Gillum is not guilty. And the rest you know is just theater." 

Preach, Sister...

Gillum added, "They quite literally tried to take everything from us...the beauty is in our system, the powers that be don't always get to decide. Everyday people like you and me sometimes get our swing at the ball. And today the jury took it."

Indeed, Brother…

In the days ahead, I am not so naive to think that the political polarization that led to seven years of attempts to entrap Gillum into a crime has changed, or that those who dislike him for his politics or personality will somehow change their minds due to the government's failure to prove their theory that he (and Lettman-Hicks) are criminals. 

But I would submit for those who support both of these longstanding public servants, and those who may disagree with their politics but realize what yesterday's verdict truly means, that you do your best to help elevate them both in their careers. Last night, I read lots of comments that suggest that "Andrew Gillum is exonerated, but his career is done," and I refuse to accept that for him or for Sharon Lettman-Hicks! My refusal stems from the fact that I believe in second, third, fourth, and fifth chances, as I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of us is the sum of our worst days or experiences!

I also refuse because I am a Christian and I seem to remember having read that Jesus Christ told His followers that when it comes to forgiveness, that we must forgive "seven times seventy times!”

And taking matters from the spiritual to the secular, if a conservative president can be twice impeached; accused of sexual crimes; be indicted in one criminal court and facing indictment in two other courts, and still have 75 percent approval among his loyal followers while raising tens of millions of dollars per month for a second presidential term, then I and we surely can support the exonerated Andrew Gillum and Sharon Lettman-Hicks in all of their professional endeavors in the days to come!

Lest we forget...