Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
The 15-day trial of Tallahassee area business man and property developer John Thomas “JT” Burnette has concluded with a “guilty” verdict on five of the nine charges Burnette was facing. Burnette was on trial in the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee on charges that he attempted to bribe former Tallahassee City Commissioner and Mayor Scott Maddox. Although he lives in Tallahassee, Burnette has family and personal ties to both Madison and Jefferson Counties.
An indictment dated Oct. 2, 2019, alleges that “Burnette bribed Maddox to take official actions favorable to Burnette's business interests and assisted Governance [a lobbying firm with which Maddox was involved, along with Maddox's former chief of staff, Janice Paige Carter-Smith] with obtaining bribes from a new client that sought to develop projects in the City of Tallahassee.” Both Maddox and Carter-Smith faced charges emerging from the same, multi-year undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation that ensnared Burnette. According to a report from the Tallahassee Democrat, both Maddox and Carter-Smith pleaded guilty soon after Burnette's indictment as part of a plea deal in exchange for cooperation with prosecutors. Maddox and Carter-Smith are scheduled to be sentenced next month.
According to a press released from the Internal Revenue Service, who along with the FBI conducted the investigation, Burnette was found guilty on one count of extortion under color of official right, two counts of honest services fraud by bribery, one count of use of interstate commerce facilities to promote bribery and one count of making false statements to a federal officer.
The press release also states that, “At trial, the government presented evidence that Burnette engaged in a multi-year scheme with Maddox and Carter-Smith to commit extortion, fraud and bribery. During the scheme, Burnette and Maddox extorted bribe payments from FBI undercover agents ("UCs") who were posing as real estate developers and entrepreneurs. Burnette instructed the UCs that to obtain preferential treatment, they must pay bribes to Maddox through Governance Services. Burnette, Maddox, Carter-Smith and the UCs agreed that the UCs would pay Governance Services $10,000 per month in exchange for Maddox agreeing to perform official acts meant to benefit the UCs' sham development company.”
“Today's verdict affirms a multi-year investigation of public corruption in the City of Tallahassee,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Coody in the press release. “Our citizens deserve and expect that those in public office will act in the public's interest, rather than their own and that of their confederates. Those who violate their oath and betray the public's trust will be the subject of this office and our law enforcement partners' unwavering efforts, which will continue beyond this verdict.”
“Our citizens are entitled to decisions based on the best interests of the public, not the best interests of corrupt public officials and bribe-paying business owners seeking to line their own pocketbooks,” said Rachel L. Rojas, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Jacksonville Division. “Let there be no doubt - bribes are not good business in Tallahassee, nor anywhere else. The FBI remains fully committed to ensuring that anyone who violates the public's trust is held accountable.”
Burnette's sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Oct. 28, at the U.S. Courthouse, in Tallahassee. He could face a maximum of 20 years for each of the extortion and honest services fraud offenses and five years each for the use of interstate facilities to promote bribery and making false statements to a Federal Officer offenses. This could total 70 years maximum behind bars for Burnette, age 44.
Maddox and Carter-Smith's sentencing hearing is set for Thursday, Sept. 9, in the U.S. Courthouse in Tallahassee. Both Maddox and Smith are facing a maximum of 20 years in prison for each of their honest services wire fraud and honest services mail fraud offenses and five years for a conspiracy to defraud the United States offense.