Mose Jefferson pleads innocent

by Gordon Russell, The Times Picayune

Tuesday April 08, 2008, 9:38 PM

Making his first court appearance since he was indicted last week, Mose Jefferson pleaded innocent Tuesday to federal charges that he bribed the former president of the Orleans Parish School Board and sought to cover it up.

Federal prosecutors sought to portray Jefferson, the older brother of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson and the chief strategist of his political organization, as a career criminal of sorts, and they asked for a high bond.

Mose Jefferson's rap sheet, the government said, is a long one, including charges of armed robbery, bail jumping, unlawful use of a weapon, carnal knowledge of a juvenile and "deceptive practices" -- apparently a violation of a consumer law.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Alma Chasez disagreed, noting that the most recent charge against Jefferson dated to 1982, when Jefferson was 39 years old. He is now 65. His last conviction was the bail-jumping charge.

That conviction, for which Jefferson served nine months in prison, dates to 1967, Illinois records show. "Yes, he's got a criminal background, but there's nothing ongoing," Chasez said.

In the end, Chasez ordered Jefferson to post a $200,000 property bond, which his attorney, Ike Spears, said Jefferson would secure with properties at 8030 Morrison Road and 2712-16 Loyola Ave.

Chasez also ordered Jefferson to turn in his passport and to avoid talking to a handful of people expected to be witnesses at his trial. Among them is former School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, who has pleaded guilty to taking $140,000 in bribes from Jefferson in exchange for her support for the purchase of a computer-based algebra curriculum.

Jefferson was told not to talk to Norco businessman Burnell Moliere and Brooks-Simms' daughter Stacy Simms, both of whom pleaded guilty to helping Brooks-Simms access the bribes. The judge warned him away from Eddy Oliver, a sometime business partner, and John Lee, whose company, JRL Enterprises, paid Jefferson more than $900,000 to sell the curriculum that he allegedly bribed Brooks-Simms to support.

Interestingly, the Loyola Avenue property Jefferson is using to secure his bond, a dilapidated Central City multiplex, has been at the center of controversies involving the Jefferson family.

It was purchased by William Jefferson in 1984. Shortly after his sister, Betty Jefferson, was elected 4th District assessor in 1998, she slashed its taxable value to $45,000, less than one-seventh the amount her brother paid for it.

When those facts became public in 2004, William Jefferson denied still owning the building, saying he transferred it years earlier to a friend, Bobby Higginbotham.

The congressman's claims aside, the 2004 tax roll listed William Jefferson as the owner, and the water bill was in Betty Jefferson's name. Mose Jefferson, meanwhile, had filled out a form that requested the complex be exempt from sanitation fees associated with city trash collection.

William Jefferson later filed an "act of correction" that said Higginbotham has been the complex's owner since 1993.

Last year, a company called Mose Jefferson Manor, not registered with the Louisiana secretary of state, filed a Katrina claim on behalf of the property.

And in Tuesday's courtroom proceeding, Spears agreed when Chasez said she assumed that "Mr. Jefferson is the sole owner" of the two properties. Chasez said she would need a resolution of the board of directors showing that. The assessors' Web site, www.opboa.org, still shows Higginbotham as the owner of record.

Mose Jefferson, who wore a dark suit, said little during Tuesday's proceeding. He was accompanied by his brother, Archie. The case has been allotted to U.S. Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon, Chasez said.

Jefferson has been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering, two counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of bribery. If convicted on all seven charges, Jefferson could face up to 65 years in prison.

Lawyers familiar with federal sentencing guidelines say he would be more likely to face a sentence of between 12 and 19 years if convicted of all charges.

According to records from the Cook County clerk of circuit court in Illinois, Mose Jefferson and an accomplice, Marshall Coleman, were charged with armed robbery in 1966.

The indictment said the pair, armed with an unspecified "dangerous weapon," took $450 and a check from a man named William Simon.

Though the records provided by the court do not show how that charge was resolved, prosecutors said Tuesday that Jefferson was convicted.

The records show that he wound up being indicted again in 1967 on a charge that he violated the conditions of his bond.

Jefferson pleaded guilty to the bail-jumping charge and was sentenced to a year in Illinois' state prison in Stateville. He was released in early 1968 after serving nine months.

Spears said Jefferson has been pardoned for the armed robbery conviction. Prosecutors said they had no record of a pardon.

Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3347.