Government lawyers ask appeals court to affirm bribery conviction of J.T. Burnette

Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat
·4 min read

Federal prosecutors asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the conviction of businessman John “J.T.” Burnette on charges involving a long-time bribery scheme with former Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox.

The government filed its brief Friday, arguing that there were no reversible errors during his 17-day-trial last summer at the U.S. Courthouse in Tallahassee. Burnette’s lawyers have argued that U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle erred in matters involving jury instructions and the testimony of an undercover FBI agent and asked that the case be remanded back to the district court for a new trial or judgment of acquittal.

The latest:

“None of Burnette’s challenges on appeal to the jury’s verdict or his trial has merit,” government lawyers wrote in the 80-page brief. “This court should affirm his convictions.”

Jurors found Burnette guilty on five counts involving the bribery scheme and false statements he gave to the FBI once the undercover agents wrapped up their investigation in 2017. He is serving a three-year sentence in a minimum-security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama.

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Burnette was convicted for his role in the pay-to-play scheme involving Maddox and his longtime partner Paige Carter-Smith, who both testified against him after pleading guilty to several bribery counts. The government’s appellate brief noted that Maddox and Burnette were long-time friends, who used their positions to enrich themselves.

“Burnette first met Maddox shortly after entering the world of Tallahassee business and politics,” government lawyers wrote. “They became friends and together rose to become two of the most powerful people in Tallahassee. By 2012, Burnette controlled a multi-million-dollar real-estate empire, and Maddox dominated local politics from his seat on the Tallahassee City Commission.”

The 45-year-old Burnette, whose many projects included the downtown Gateway building, the Hotel Duval and the DoubleTree Hotel, was convicted for payoffs he arranged for Maddox and Carter-Smith through their lobbying firm, Governance, which she technically owned but Maddox secretly controlled.

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He paid $100,000 for Maddox’s help in killing a hotel that would have rivaled Burnette’s holdings and directed undercover agents to send $10,000 checks to Governance for Maddox’s help with approvals for development in Fallschase and Myers Park.

In their January court filing, Burnette’s lawyers asserted that Hinkle mistakenly changed a standard jury instruction involving the definition of bribery and allowed an undercover FBI agent to testify about Burnette’s truthfulness in secretly recorded conversations. They also said the court erred when it didn’t grant a motion for acquittal on a charge of making false statements to the FBI.

“The government’s theory of the case was seriously flawed,” Burnette’s lawyers wrote. “At the government’s urging, the court instructed the jury that it could convict even if the government failed to prove that Maddox promised to take official action on any specific matter.”

In the government’s appeals brief, prosecutors wrote that Burnette faces two “interrelated hurdles” that he can’t overcome. The brief was filed by W. Connor Winn, a criminal appeals lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“His arguments are inconsistent with the federal bribery statute, the federal false-statement statute and the Federal Rules of Evidence,” the brief says. “And nearly all his claims are subject to review for plain error or sufficiency of the evidence — challenging standards of review to surmount even if his claims had merit.”

Maddox, a former lawyer who was disbarred after his conviction, is serving a five-year sentence at the federal prison camp in Taladega, Alabama. Carter-Smith, former executive director of the Downtown Improvement Authority, is serving two years at the federal prison camp in Marianna.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Federal lawyers ask court to affirm bribery conviction of J.T. Burnette