Deliberations To Continue In Detroit Bid-Rigging Trial
DETROIT (WWJ) - Deliberations will resume Thursday in the federal corruption trial for Bobby Ferguson.
Wednesday's jury session was cut short because one of the jurors had a funeral to attend.
Ferguson and two others are accused of setting up a bid-rigging scheme to help his company win a nearly $12-million contract for a low-income housing project in Detroit.
Ferguson also is facing weapons and illegal dumping charges.
Also charged are Calvin Hall and Michael Woodhouse. All three defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
Two other people testified under plea deals that they submitted phony bids at the behest of Ferguson, and he promised them work in return for their cooperation and silence.
The judge on Wednesday answered a few questions for the jurors, including one about financial structuring in the case.
On Tuesday, one alternate juror was named to the panel after another fell ill. The alternate juror, an African-American man, replaced a white man.
"There's a brand new person in there, and the mix could be totally mishmashed around," said WWJ Legal Analyst and Talk Radio 1270 host Charlie Langton. "The rules say that the jury deliberations must start from scratch. So, how they're going to actually do that in the jury room is anybody's guess. But there is a lot of information to go on."
Ferguson is well-known in Detroit as a former close friend of disgraced ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
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