Ex-U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown's route to a federal plea deal was long, weird. Here's a recap.

Former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown has followed a twisting legal route to the hearing that could decide permanently the years-long legal fight over fraud charges hounding the Jacksonville Democrat. The full story could fill a book. For people in a hurry, here’s a recap:

Indictments announced, and the fallout begins

July 8, 2016: Running for reelection after 12 terms in Congress, Brown is indicted on 22 criminal counts including mail and wire fraud, obstruction and filing false tax returns. She and her longtime chief of staff, Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, plead innocent to federal charges centering on money collected for a sham nonprofit whose president had pleaded guilty months earlier to fraudulently conspiring with unnamed government officials.

Aug. 30, 2016: Brown loses the Democratic primary to Al Lawson, a veteran of North Florida politics who would prevail in the November general election.

Sept. 16, 2016: A website carrying a letter from Brown asks supporters to help pay for her legal defense. “I am a woman of integrity and I categorically deny the charges,” the letter says.

Feb. 8, 2017: Simmons pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as theft of government property in a plea deal that commits him to testify at Brown’s trial if subpoenaed.

Brown goes on trial in Jacksonville federal court

April 27, 2017: Brown’s trial opens. Lawyers had listed about a dozen business executives, plus local politicians, lobbyists, college presidents and civic figures are named as potential witnesses.

May 1, 2017: One Door for Education President Carla Wiley, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy the year before, testifies that Simmons, her former boyfriend, controlled the checkbook and debit card for the organization she had started as a small scholarship fund that received about $800,000 in contributions after Brown made personal appeals to wealthy donors. Wiley admitted taking $140,000 over several years to cover personal bills and mortgage payments.

May 3, 2017: Simmons testifies that for three years he followed a pattern of withdrawing cash from One Door for Education’s bank account, driving to another bank and depositing cash in Brown’s personal checking account. He also testifies he sometimes gave Brown blank One Door checks after signing Wiley’s name on the signature line.

May 4-5, 2017: Brown testifies she’s no criminal, saying “that’s not who I am” in remarks the day before jurors are given the case. But she struggles to answer prosecution questions about $141,000 in cash deposits made to her checking account over five years and says she never donated to One Door for Education even though her tax return said she did.

May 10, 2017: During the third day of jury deliberations, U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan removes a juror who said “the Holy Spirit” told him Brown was innocent. Acting after another juror voiced concern about that statement, Corrigan says verdicts are supposed to be based on testimony and evidence from the trial and that the juror he removed was unable to decide solely on those criteria.

May 11, 2017: Jurors find Brown guilty of 18 of the 22 charges against her. Brown’s lawyer says he’ll seek a new trial.

Dec. 4, 2017: Corrigan sentences Brown to five years in prison. Simmons is sentenced to four years and Wiley to 21 months.

Prison sentence begins, and so do the appeals

Jan. 29, 2018: Brown starts serving her time at a minimum-security women’s camp inside Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman in Sumter County.

March 26, 2018: Another Brown attorney, William Mallory Kent, tells the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that Corrigan shouldn’t have dismissed the juror, and that Brown’s conviction should be tossed out and a new trial held because the jury had been improperly changed.

Jan. 9, 2020: A three-judge panel upholds Brown's conviction.

Jan. 30, 2020: Kent asks for an en banc rehearing, where every active judge on the 11th Circuit considers the appeal.

April 22, 2020: Brown is released from prison and put under a kind of home confinement because of concerns the ex-congresswoman, then 73, could be exposed to COVID-19 in prison.

Oct. 6, 2020: After the appeals court agrees to hold an en banc rehearing, Brown asks a magistrate to order her “released” from custody until the appeal is decided. That frees her from any probation-like supervision she could have faced living in a Northside Jacksonville home, but it also stops Brown from earning credit toward completing her sentence (eliminating a need for re-trial) without being behind bars.

May 6, 2021: The 11th Circuit judges order a new trial, saying Corrigan erred in removing the juror.

Jan. 31, 2022: With new court-appointed attorneys picked to represent Brown, Corrigan schedules the second trial to start Sept. 12.

Tuesday: A change of plea hearing for Brown's case is announced for Wednesday at 11 a.m.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Here's what led to ex-U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown taking plea in fraud case