Former Atlanta official Mitzi Bickers sentenced in City Hall corruption investigation
ATLANTA - A federal judge has sentenced former Atlanta city official and pastor Mitzi Bickers to 14 years in federal prison as part of a long-running investigation into corruption at City Hall.
Thursday, Bickers sat in federal court to hear her sentence. In March, a jury found her guilty on nine of 12 counts including money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bribery.
Bickers, who helped former Mayor Kasim Reed win an election and then worked as his director of human services, was accused of using her influence to funnel business to city contractors Elvin "E.R." Mitchell Jr. and Charles P. Richards Jr. Prosecutors said she directed roughly $17 million in city work to the two men and their companies in exchange for about $2 million in bribes.
"When you follow the money trail, in this case, it cuts through the lies and the manipulation," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Kitchens said in court. "It all leads to one clear path, that the defendant Mitzi Bickers is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."
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Bickers lied in her financial disclosure forms for the city and on her federal tax returns to hide the bribes, prosecutors said. She also instructed Mitchell to lie to the FBI in 2015 to hide her involvement, Kitchens said.
Bickers used the money from bribes to support a lavish lifestyle, including buying a lakefront home, a luxury SUV, jet skis and taking expensive trips, prosecutors said.
Mitzi Bickers is a former city official who worked under during the Kasim Reed administration. (FOX 5 Atlanta)
Bickers was also accused of trying to use money and influence to get contract work from city officials in Jackson, Mississippi, but the jury found Bickers not guilty on the count.
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Mitchell and Richards were both charged in early 2017, and about a half dozen other people were charged as the investigation continued over the next several years. Several of them were high-ranking members of Reed’s administration.
Two top Atlanta officials fired in bribery scandal
The city of Atlanta has now fired two top city officials, Rita Braswell and Cotena Alexander, after their names surfaced during the Mitzi Bickers federal corruption trial. Senior I-team Reporter Dale Russell covered the Bickers trial as well as the years’ long FBI and IRS investigation of Atlanta City Hall and explains what it all means.
The investigation cast a shadow over Reed’s final year in office that lingered over City Hall even after the term-limited mayor left in early 2018. But Reed was never charged and his lawyers released a statement last year saying federal prosecutors had told them he was not under investigation.
Some others ensnared in the probe pleaded guilty and were sent to prison, but Bickers’ lawyers insisted she was innocent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.