The older brother Mose Jefferson now takes center stage in a federal courtroom after his brother ex-Rep. William Jefferson. The trial not only does not speak well for New Orleans, but for the Jefferson family, which has been the subject of years of FBI investigations. Mose Jefferson is accused of bribing a school board member.
By Laura Maggi
New Orleans Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — Wearing a microphone hidden on her by two FBI agents, former Orleans Parish School Board member Ellenese Brooks-Simms tried to wheedle information out of Mose Jefferson as they walked around aisles of a Home Depot on the West Bank.
In a recording from the store meeting played Wednesday in federal court, Jefferson was reserved, barely mentioning the names of people he and Brooks-Simms were talking about, liberally using pronouns instead.
Throughout an afternoon court session, Brooks-Simms often translated Jefferson’s opaque sentences in response to questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone, filling in names and expounding on what he meant.
