New Sentence date for Ellenese Brooks-Simms

  U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman has ordered a new sentencing date for former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, the key prosecution witness in the Mose Jefferson bribery trial last summer. Brooks-Simms, who pleaded guilty in June 2007 to corrupting the school board contracting process, had been scheduled for sentencing this Thursday (Nov. 19). Feldman, however, ordered her sentencing delayed until March 11, 2010. After a trial last August before U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon, a jury convicted political operative Mose Jefferson — brother of former Congressman Bill Jefferson — of paying $140,000 in bribes to Brooks-Simms to influence the School Board contracting process. Jefferson faces a separate corruption trial in January with his sister, assessor Betty Jefferson. U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle, who will preside over the second corruption case, has scheduled hearings this month on defense motions seeking separate trials for Jefferson and his three co-defendants: his sister Betty, niece Angela Coleman, and girlfriend, former City Councilwoman Renee Gill-Pratt. — Allen Johnson Jr.

Tags: Martin Feldman, Ellenese Brooks-Simms, Mose Jefferson, Mary Ann Vial Lemmon, Bill Jefferson