Federal prosecutors want a new trial for state Sen. Emil Jones III, whose first trial on bribery charges ended in a hung jury earlier this year.
Jones, a South Side Democrat, was not present at the Tuesday court hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where federal prosecutors first disclosed they intend to retry Jones for allegedly soliciting a bribe from a red-light camera executive.
Attorneys and U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood are expected to set a new trial date later this month.
A new trial could last four weeks since prosecutors intend to call “a few additional witnesses,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Prashant Kolluri said in court.
It’s been a little more than a month since Jones’ trial ended with a hung jury. Despite being a relatively straightforward case, the trial featured plenty of intrigue. Jurors heard from a former red-light camera executive who wore a wire for the FBI after being caught giving “benefits” to public officials across the suburbs, and they viewed undercover recordings he made in 2019.
Jones also became the latest corruption defendant to take the witness stand at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. He was the first sitting state lawmaker to face trial since former state Rep. Derrick Smith, who was found guilty of bribery by a jury in 2014.
Ultimately, Jones’ trial turned out to be the third of four federal corruption trials in Chicago to end without a conviction since August.
Prosecutors say Jones agreed to protect red-light camera executive Omar Maani in the Illinois Senate in exchange for $5,000 and a job for a former intern of Jones. The ex-intern wound up being paid $1,800 by Maani despite doing no work.
Jones had filed a bill in February 2019 that Maani saw as bad for business.
The alleged deal between Jones and Maani arose over two dinners in the summer of 2019 at the downtown steakhouse Steak 48.
During their first dinner together, on July 17, 2019, Maani asked how much he could raise for Jones “in an ideal world.”
Jones eventually said, “If you can raise me five grand, that’d be good.”
The senator also asked for a job for the ex-intern during that dinner. Then, during their later meeting on Aug. 8, 2019, Maani told Jones he’d help the ex-intern “100%.”
“And like I said before,” Maani added, “if you could just help me out with the, ah, the study to make it to Chicago.”
“You’re good,” Jones told him.
But when he took the witness stand in April, Jones denied that he’d struck any deal with Maani. He said his response to the businessman was simply “how I speak.”