Jurors will hear closing arguments March 13 in the federal criminal trial of former JEA executives Aaron Zahn and Ryan Wannemacher after defense attorneys presented their cases over the course of one afternoon and one morning in the nearly four-week trial.
As testimony concluded March 12, the prosecution and defense each presented analysts of an employee incentive plan that is central to the government’s case.
Prosecutors claim the plan was part of a scheme by Zahn and Wannemacher to skim tens of millions of dollars in bonuses for themselves and other JEA executives through a sale of the publicly owned utility.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy and wire fraud, with the government alleging that they deceived JEA board members into voting in July 2019 to approve the incentive plan and start a process that could have led to a sale of JEA.
Zahn’s defense team presented one witness, accountant Ernest Dixon, before resting its case shortly before 11 a.m.
Wannemacher’s attorneys did not present any witnesses but rather told Senior U.S. District Judge Brian Davis that they would offer excerpts from statements that Zahn gave under oath to city officials investigating whether he could be fired. Those statements were made in 2019 and 2020.
Federal prosecutors presented one witness in their rebuttal. That was Jeff Rodda, an assistant City Council auditor.
Jurors heard Dixon and Rodda offer and defend different analyses of the plan, while the attorneys probed the witnesses for the other side on their methodology, facts and adherence to principles.
Rodda’s testimony focused mostly on a November 2019 report from the Council Auditor’s Office, which sounded alarms that the payouts from the incentive plan could potentially be much larger than had initially been believed.
Auditor report
The day began with jurors hearing from Dixon, who testified that the auditor’s report was not based on standard accounting practices and used flawed methodology in determining that a sale of JEA would generate payouts of hundreds of millions of dollars to the pool of plan participants. He testified that the plan would generate $30 million at a sale price of $11 billion, while the report had the plan paying more than $300 million on a sale generating $5 billion for the city.
The attorneys also targeted the credibility of the other side’s witnesses.
Zahn attorney Raquel Jefferson asked Rodda if he was a certified public accountant, was certified in financial forensics and had experience in mergers and acquisitions. He answered no to the questions.
Duva’s questioning focused on Dixon’s role as an expert witness hired by the Zahn team, suggesting Dixon was not an objective analyst but rather a high-priced, hired-gun consultant who had a limited view of the facts in the case. Dixon’s direct testimony began the afternoon of March 11.
Dixon testified that he had not watched any recordings of meetings involved in the trial and had not seen certain documents.
Research cost
On March 11, Dixon testified that his company, California-based Berkeley Research Group, charged $750 an hour for his services and that he had spent about 250 hours working on Zahn’s case. That calculates to $187,500.
“I’m going to try to keep this short so you don’t hit the $200,000 threshold,” Duva told Dixon.
“Fair enough,” Dixon said.
Dixon testified that he spent six hours March 11 preparing for his testimony with Zahn attorney Brian Albritton.
“I’m not great at math, but that’s about $4,500?” Duva asked.
“Something like that,” Dixon said.
Duva closed the government’s rebuttal about 3:45 p.m.
Garrity rights closure
A portion of the trial was held in a session closed to the public.
Davis barred the lead prosecutors and the public, including the media, from the courtroom for about 15 minutes as Wannemacher’s attorneys presented the Zahn statements.
In closing the court, Davis cited what are known as the Garrity rights of the defendants. Those rights protect public employees who are compelled to give sworn statements from having the information they provide in those statements be used against them in a criminal case.
Davis had previously barred the public from hearings involving Garrity rights. But his order March 12 marked the first time the court had been closed while jurors heard testimony.
Jim Piggott, a reporter for News4Jax, asked Davis if he would allow an attorney for the news station to object to the closing. Davis said he would accept an objection but would not delay the trial.
After the courtroom was reopened, Wannemacher’s defense rested its case at 11:10 a.m.
The trial began Feb. 15 with jury selection. It is being held at the Bryan Simpson U.S. Courthouse.