All in the Family
Part 2 of the previous story.
Both were posted on AOL
Allan Lengel
How a Political Dynasty Slid Into Disgrace
Posted: 11/13/09(Nov. 13) --
Down in New Orleans, in Bayou country, the Jefferson family was a political force to be reckoned with.
The patriarch, former Rep. William Jefferson, headed a political machine called the Progressive Democrats. His power base included his sister Betty, a 4th District Assessor; his brother Mose, a political operative; brother-in-law Alan Green, a state judge; and daughter Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, a Harvard-educated lawyer and state representative, who was hoping one day to replace her father in Congress.
Fast-forward to today. The political dynasty is not only dead, but you need a scorecard to track who in the family is off to prison and who is awaiting trial.
Tulane University political science professor Brian J. Brox says that, simply put, the dynasty rose from humble beginnings and showed some of the best aspects of American politics, but ultimately the worst: "power for power's sake, power for personal gain."
That credo wound up being the undoing of the family.
Former Congressman William Jefferson, joined by his wife, Andrea, arrive Friday at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison after being convicted this summer of 11 of 16 counts of public corruption. Federal prosecutors say Jefferson, 62, took $478,000 in bribes in schemes involving business ventures in Africa, and he had hoped to get much more. Last year, he lost his bid for a 10th term in Congress to a Republican in a Democratic-dominated district.
Jefferson was not alone in his misdeeds. His wife, Andrea, and brother Mose were never charged in the case, but were named as unindicted co-conspirators.
Brother-in-law Green was convicted of bribery in 2006 and sentenced to 51 months in prison as part of Operation Wrinkled Robe, a wide FBI probe into judicial corruption at the Jefferson Parish Courthouse.
Sister Betty Jefferson, the 4th District Assessor and a political operative, is awaiting trial, along with her daughter Angela Coleman and Mose Jefferson, on charges of skimming more than $600,000 from three charities they controlled. The family's youngest sister, Brenda Jefferson, has pleaded guilty in that case and has agreed to cooperate.
Regardless of the outcome of that trial, Mose Jefferson appears headed for prison. He was convicted in August for bribing school board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms with $140,000 to push through a lucrative contract. His sentencing is set for next month in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.
None of this bodes well for one of Jefferson's five daughters, Jefferson-Bullock, a lawyer who served as a state representative from 2004 to 2007. She appeared to have a promising political future but lost a bid for a state Senate seat in 2007 that had once been held by her father.
She is not facing any criminal charges. But the New Orleans Times-Picayune last year reported that she, as well as former City Councilwoman and state Rep. Renee Gill Pratt, the girlfriend of Mose Jefferson, had steered millions of dollars over the course of a decade or so to the three charities in question.
Observers say many in New Orleans are either angry or disappointed in Jefferson, who championed the causes of the common man. But there are some who still stand by him -- evident in the number of letters that were recently submitted to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, asking that he go easy on Jefferson.
The Rev. Tom Watson, a pastor who wrote one of those letters, said, "Bill always gave of himself beyond the call of duty, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," and added, "It is my hope that you will consider the many positive contributions Bill has made to our community, and that you will be as lenient as possible."
Jefferson's story is all the more painful when you read this humbling passage filed in a court document last week:
"I was born on a small cotton farm in northeast Louisiana. I am the sixth of ten children of Mose and Angeline Jefferson. My parents were deeply religious. My father was head deacon and superintendent of our Sunday School. My mother was deaconess at our church and in charge of youth programs there. I loved and respected them completely and wanted and have tried to be like them. We were poor, and we had to work long hours in the cotton fields to make ends meet. But I never felt deprived and had a very happy childhood."
He went on to Harvard Law School, served in the state Senate and then in 1990 became the first African-American elected to Congress from the state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. The rest should have been an American dream story.
"It's just kind of sad," political science professor Brox said, "that someone who started with so little, who can make such an important contribution, chose the other path." |
