Mitzi Bickers trial: Former Jackson mayor testifies

ATLANTA - A former mayor in Mississippi revealed some surprising revelations in the high-profile public corruption case for Pastor Mitzi Bickers.

Former Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber about strippers, first-class airline seats, concert tickets, and luxury limo rides, all tied to Bickers.

Yarber said he hired Bickers to help him win the mayor seat and she even held a fundraiser at her lakefront home where he said he met former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and former construction worker ER Mitchell.

Bickers trial day five: Prosecutors' star witness ER Mitchell says he was an FBI informant

The prosecution’s star witness testified before his involvement with Pastor Bickers in what he claims was a bribery scheme he was an FBI undercover informant.

ER Mitchell has testified he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bickers in a pay-to-play scheme at Atlanta City Hall.

Mitchell’s admission of working with the FBI set off a furious cross-examination. 

Bickers trial day four: Star witness ER Mitchell says cash was exchanged for contracts

The prosecution’s star witness took the stand in the fourth day of the bribery and conspiracy trial of Pastor Mitzi Bickers on Wednesday. 

Former construction worker ER Mitchell told the jury, for years, beginning in 2010, he paid Bickers hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to secure millions of dollars in city of Atlanta contracts.

Mitchell testified Bickers told him she needed the money to pay off other city of Atlanta officials 

Bickers trial day three: Federal auditor testifies tracking cash deposits

Dramatic testimony began the second week of the bribery conspiracy trial of former top city of Atlanta official Mitzi Bickers.

Federal auditor testified they tracked hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawn from a city contractor’s bank account.

That was followed closely by hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash deposits made by Bickers into her various accounts.

Bickers trial day two: Former girlfriend speaks exclusively to FOX 5 I-Team about her testimony

A former girlfriend of Pastor Mitzi Bickers, who is on trial for bribery and conspiracy, spoke one-on-one with the FOX 5 I-Team about her bombshell testimony in federal court on the second day of the trial.

Diedre Verdier testified about a lavish lifestyle paid mostly in cash and how a local contractor once dropped off a bag of cash to Rev. Bickers.

"She’s like a rock star in her own world, you just go with it," said Verdier, a Texas flight attendant.

Verdier said she was in a nearly year-long live-in relationship with Bickers for nearly a year.

Bickers trail day one: City official placed on leave after courtroom allegations

A bombshell from the Atlanta federal courthouse on the first day of the first trial in the Atlanta City Hall corruption case gets underway.

The shocking revelation came in opening statements of the federal trial of Pastor Mitzi Bickers.

Prosecutor Jeff Davis told jurors Bickers paid $30,000 in bribes to a current city official so she could pay off her credit card debt.

That longtime city employee is Cotena Alexander, the deputy commissioner for the Atlanta Department of Transportation and oversees the Office of Transportation Infrastructure Management activities for the city of Atlanta.

The city first learned of the allegations from FOX 5 News when during an inquiry asking for a comment about the allegations. 

The city says it immediately placed Alexander, who has been with the city more than two decades, on adminstrative leave.

Who is Mitzi Bickers and what charges does she face?

Bishop Mitzi Bickers has been a high-profile and powerful behind-the-scenes political operative in Atlanta for years. Fast-talking and feisty, she helped Kasim Reed get elected mayor and then worked in his administration. She is still bishop of the Emmanuel Baptist church once led by her father.

Mitzi Bickers was the first person charged in the federal investigation of Atlanta City Hall to plead not guilty.

In 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Mitzi Bickers on conspiracy to accept bribes, accusing her of helping steer $17 million in contracts to two construction vendors who earlier pleaded guilty. E.R. Mitchell and Charlie Richards did work for the city of Atlanta where Bickers once worked under then-Mayor Kasim Reed. Bickers denied the charges.

She pleaded not guilty and vowed to fight the charges.

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