This is not pretty. After just convicting ex-Rep. William Jefferson for public corruption, his brother Mose is going on trial for bribery. Jefferson’s sister and niece also await trial on public corruption charges. And by the way, William Jefferson’s brother Mose probably should have been indicted in his brother’s public corruption case, but for some reason wasn’t.
By Laura Maggi
New Orleans Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — Less than a week after his brother, former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, was convicted of public corruption, Mose Jefferson is scheduled to go to trial today on charges he bribed a former Orleans Parish School Board president.
When proceedings open at the federal courthouse on Poydras Street, close attention will be given to whether jurors carry a bias against Mose Jefferson.
The defense on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon to postpone or move the trial, citing the cascade of publicity after the verdicts — 11 of them convictions — last week in William Jefferson’s corruption trial in Virginia.
Lemmon denied the request, but she said questioning of potential jurors “will reveal the extent of prejudice, if any” resulting from news media coverage of William Jefferson’s trial.
