Even after a meeting with Johnson and his staff, said Engelke, he wasn’t completely convinced it would happen.
“I wasn’t 100 percent confident that it would get introduced the next day,” said Engelke. “I was cautiously optimistic.”
The bill passed in December on the last council session before the 2014 holiday recess, enabling Universal to pursue a mixed-use development at the site of the Royal. Ultimately, the organization sold the property in 2016 for $3.7 million.
The defense also called Joshua Weingram, a former project manager for Dranoff Properties, a consultant on the redevelopment of the Royal. He reiterated to jurors that the project had widespread community support and that Dranoff spent considerable energy trying to bring a small group of near neighbors on board.
That effort, which ended after Johnson’s legislation passed, resulted in a memorandum of understanding that included a series of concessions related to the design of the mixed-use project, which called for apartments, condominiums and commercial space.
On cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Gibson repeatedly asked Weingram if, while working on the Royal, he was ever aware that Dawn Chavous, Johnson’s wife and co-defendant, had a consulting contract with Universal — a contract prosecutors allege was a charade in service of the bribery scheme.
Weingram said he only knew Johnson and Chavous were married.
Would he have liked to have known that the nonprofit his employer was working with on the Royal was also paying Johnson’s wife?
“Possibly,” said Weingram.