July 31, 2021 - A 40 year career over in four hours
This Plain Dealer report is behind a pay-wall. We show its text below.


A federal jury Friday convicted Cleveland Councilman Kenneth Johnson of corruption and tax charges in a verdict that ended his 40-year career at City Hall.

The jury deliberated four hours before it found Johnson guilty of all 15 charges in his indictment: two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from a governmental program; five counts of tax violations; six counts of theft from a federal program; and separate counts of tampering with a witness and falsifying records.

He faces up to 10 years in prison when U.S. District Judge John Adams sentences him Oct. 8. The jury also convicted Johnson’s longtime executive assistant, Garnell Jamison, 63, of all 11 charges in his indictment. He could face about five years in prison when Adams sentences him the same day as Johnson. Both are expected to appeal. They are free on personal bonds pending their sentencings.

Johnson, 75, appeared ashen upon hearing the jury’s decision. The two men, who worked together for years and were inseparable in the Buckeye-Shaker Square neighborhood, appeared motionless when Adams read the verdicts. Jamison stared at a wall.

“We respect the jury’s verdict, but we’re disappointed,” said Johnson’s attorney, Myron Watson. “These were honest mistakes. There was no intent to defraud the government.”

Jamison’s attorney, David Doughten, said: “Garnell truly believed that his actions were within the law.”

The verdict followed a two-week trial that highlighted Johnson’s push to profit off his job. It means he is officially off City Council, and any chance of reelection is over.

A grand jury indicted Johnson in February. Based on those charges, a special state panel suspended Johnson in April. He could not participate in the business of City Council, but he retained his title and his salary of $88,000.

Today, that’s gone.

“It’s a sad day,” Councilman Blaine Griffin said. “I don’t enjoy watching the demise of a man who served his community for so long. Most importantly, the people of the Buckeye-Shaker Square community have to know that their government will be accountable to them. I respect the jury’s decision, and he is going to have to be held accountable for his actions.”

Marion Anita Gardner, a community activist, replaced Johnson. She is not running for the seat in the November general election. Johnson, despite the charges, had sought to regain his seat. Ten candidates are vying for the job in the September primary.

Seven days of testimony portrayed Johnson as a man who schemed to put money in his pocket and avoid paying taxes. Prosecutors said Johnson, in 2013, began double-dipping, a move that allowed him to begin collecting his retirement benefits while he worked. That, prosecutors said, led to a large tax bill.

In 2014, Johnson began listing tens of thousands of dollars in deductions on his taxes, much of it in donations to the city recreation center named after him. In 2015, for instance, Johnson’s taxes showed that he had an adjusted gross income of $137,000. He listed $103,000 in itemized deductions.

IRS agent Nick Miller testified that Johnson also listed about $10,000 a year in deductions for rental property for his offices. Johnson, however, had two offices at the recreation center, a city building, but he didn’t pay any rent to the city or have a lease for the offices, prosecutors said. Based on the overinflating of the deductions, Johnson owes the IRS $92,000 in back taxes for 2014 through 2018.

Prosecutors stressed that Johnson fleeced the government in different ways. They said Johnson and Jamison conspired to submit false timesheets from Robert Fitzpatrick, a city recreation department employee who signed the sheets that said he performed ward services for Johnson.

Fitzpatrick testified last week that he never did any work. From January 2010 to October 2018, Johnson received $127,200 in city reimbursement checks. Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge this year and will be sentenced after the trial. Johnson testified that he did pay Fitzpatrick, and he called Fitzpatrick’s statements to the jury about not getting paid “as false as you can get.”

The investigation into the timesheets mirrored stories in 2018 by Mark Naymik, then-a columnist for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. He wrote a series that detailed Johnson’s yearslong abuse of his city expense account. The stories indicated that many top city officials, including Council’s president and current mayoral candidate Kevin Kelley, did little to stop Johnson’s actions. Only after the stories appeared did Council seek an examination of reimbursements and policies.

On Friday, Kelley disputed the stories, saying, “The minute I learned about those reports, I put a stop to it. And I proceeded to bring in an accounting firm to do a full audit of the expense process. As Council president, I don’t sign off on expense reports.”

During Johnson’s trial, prosecutors also alleged that Johnson worked with John Hopkins, the one-time director of the Buckeye-Shaker Square Development Corp., in steering at least $100,000 to his adopted sons for work they did on a landscaping project through the nonprofit. As a result, at least $30,000 from his children’s checks ended up in Johnson’s bank account.

The agency ran on money from other nonprofits and federal dollars that flowed through City Hall. City provisions and federal law do not allow relatives of employees from being paid with the money.

Johnson testified that he donated tens of thousands of dollars in appliances, uniforms and sports equipment to the recreation center. He said he did not keep track of the amounts he gave. Instead, he relied on others.

However, city officials said they had no record of any donations from Johnson. He also overestimated two car donations to Our Lady of the Wayside. He listed the first of two, 1975 Buick LeSabres at $36,000. He valued the second at $43,000. He said he donated the vehicles because it became too difficult to obtain parts for them. He stressed, however, that they were in “mint condition” and were quite sentimental.

He only listed his estimates on his taxes, not the sales that the Avon nonprofit sold them for, less than $3,000.

“It must be nice to write off a $43,000 deduction on your taxes based on sentimental reasons,” Megan Miller, an assistant U.S. attorney, told jurors during closing arguments Thursday.

Less than an hour after the verdict Friday, Councilman Michael Polensek spoke about his former colleague. The two men served together for decades.

“I find the whole situation troubling,” Polensek said. “The rec center was a base of operations. I’m extremely disappointed. But when you behave in a way in which you lack regard for the community, that’s what happens. The jury’s verdict was the right decision.”

John Kuntz, cleveland.com
© Copyright, 2021, The Plain Dealer