Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Former Dallas mayor pro tem Don Hill calling for justice, fairness in corruption trial

By Gordon Jackson of Dallas Weekly

Don Hill remembered that grim day, June 20, 2005, when FBI agents raided his office and confiscated documents that would lead to his indictment on corruption charges.

“That day was a very difficult day for us, but it was also a day of exhilaration of confidence,” Hill told The Dallas Weekly. “Within moments, you understand that City Hall is shut down, everything is shut down. They’re grabbing everybody’s computers and that this is the real deal. Truthfully what you do, what I did, you just begin to pray and ask God to give you the wisdom that you need for the moment that you’re facing; that’s what he did.”

Hill added: “It was also a day where I saw a lot of deliverance and people rallying to me. By the time I got home, without me calling, a pastor was already there; and elder and one of my prayer partners were already at my house.

“Even though you’re facing a difficult time like nothing you’ve never seen before, you have people that were there ready to encourage and support you. I continue to see it to this day.”

Hill also especially remembered what the lead investigator said to him.

“He told me: ‘This is the first day of the rest of your life and your political career is over with,’” Hill said.

Such statements may serve as a point of evidence on Hill’s case. Following a prayer vigil, a contentious preliminary hearing and as the jury was being selected, the trial is underway, expected to last from four to six months. In spite of the U.S. Attorney’s office having accumulated over 30,000 wiretapped conversations, hundreds of boxes of confiscated documents and 100 secret recordings from developer Bill Fisher, the alleged whistleblower in the corruption case, the embattled former mayor pro-tem told the Weekly that he remains confident the federal court trial will find him innocent of the charges that has plagued him and his wife Sheila the past four years.

“We’ll have an opportunity to present our case to 12 people who are selected as jurors,” Ray Jackson, Don Hill’s attorney, said at his law office. “The indictment, as well as some of the things that have been leaked out to media, has been from the government’s perspective. It’s their idea of the case; it’s their interpretation of the facts in the case. We have a different interpretation and we plan to present that to the jury and we plan on the jury exonerating Mr. Hill at the end of the day.”

About those hordes of recordings and documents, Jackson stated: “Don’t always believe everything that you hear and read. They’ve done a lot of recordings and the tapes speak for themselves.”

Also on trial will be D’Angelo Lee, Hill’s appointed planning and zoning commissioner, affordable housing developer Brian Potashnik, his wife Cheryl, Darren Reagan, former CEO of the Black State Employees Association of Texas, automobile dealer Rick Robinson. Others indicted, such as Kevin Dean, have entered plea bargains in exchange for testifying against Hill.

“Those people have pleaded guilty, because obviously they felt like they were guilty for their actions, which has no bearing on Mr. Hill’s case or his actions,” Jackson said. “As to what those individuals will say in trail as to what they say, we’ll see. As to the weight of their testimony and trial, that will be for a jury to determine. We feel we’re not guilty, and we’ll maintain the innocent.”

Hill and Jackson believe that a full review of all of the facts will exonerate Hill of charges that he executed manners of bribery while on the city council in connection to low and mixed-income housing projects by Southwest Housing Development.

Jackson said: “We’ll wait to answer that question,” upon which Hill followed: “We serve at significant sacrifice on the city council, so the idea of us doing things for reasons other than what we felt like was best for the citizens was just wrong. I do think it’s important that people know that we’re going to trail because we do believe we’re innocent. That’s irrespective of anybody else taking a plea or even the allegations made. I believe that during the course of the trial, the evidence by and large is going to be focused on the facts of the case and developing those facts for the jury.”

Jackson, along with Victor Vital, Sheila Hill’s attorney, may also argue from the point that Hill was possibly targeted because of his race and political affiliation. His FBI raid took place six weeks after his leadership helped a strong sector of the African American community defeat a city referendum that would have given the mayor virtually unilateral power. Further a recently released study argued that the U.S. Attorney’s office under the Bush administration disproportionately targeted both blacks and Democrats for prosecution on various charges. Hill’s case was one of 375 reviewed by two communication professors.

“I believe personally that that was a motivation and I think that the facts we’ve seen since that time showed that it is one,” Hill said.

Prosecutors have vehemently denied singling out blacks in the investigation. Groups like Dallas Citizens for Fairness have sent a letter asking for current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to monitor the trial.

“Seeking a fresh set of eyes for Attorney General Holder to take a look at this case, I think it’s important for the public to know about,” Hill said. “But in terms of the actual trial itself, that’s probably not going to play a major part, if any significant role at all, at how the evidence is developed. In the course of the trial, these lawyers are going to focus on the facts of the case.”

“Those jurors are going to go in and listen to the evidence, the arguments of the lawyers and they will make their judgments, not based on those facts but it will based on what they’ll see and hear in that courtroom,” said Jackson. “We’re comfortable with that. “We think that if we get (jurors) who can be fair which is ultimately our desire, we believe that at the end of the day, the evidence is going to exonerate Mr. Hill.”

A hearing was held Monday morning to determine if Hill had violated the gag order given by federal judge Barbara Lynn.

About 50 people participated in the prayer vigil on Sunday on the parking lot across the corner from the federal courthouse building. Hill’s pastor, Bryan Carter of Concord Missionary Baptist Church, led to the group in a series of incessant praying. They prayed not only on behalf of the Hills, but for the attorneys on both sides of the case, the judge, jurors, the media covering the trial and, most of all, for true and justice to be executed.

“We want to pray for justice, for fairness,” Carter said. “Let us stand up for truth, let us stand up for justice and that no crookedness be done.”

Related stories

• Dallas City Hall corruption trial interrupted by jurors’ family illness, vacation (July 2, 2009)

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• Legal / Lawsuits > Criminal

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