ATLANTA – Months after he was found guilty of making millions in illegally-obtained contracts with the City of Atlanta, former contractor E.R. Mitchell says he's broke.
On Tuesday, Mitchell headed to court today for a divorce hearing from his former wife, but plenty of new details emerged from the courtroom about his business dealings with the city, including with Atlanta Public Schools.
11Alive’s Valerie Hoff was in court for it all as accusations flew on both sides.
As the attorney for Marjorie Mitchell asked a judge for $16,000 to save the Mitchell's two homes from foreclosure, she accused E.R. of hiding money from his soon to be ex-wife by moving it among 15 different companies. That includes one that has a $16,000-a-month consulting contract with Atlanta Public Schools. But when E.R. took the stand, he told the judge he is out of money.
His attorney Odis Williams claims E.R.’s company hasn't gotten many construction contracts since he started cooperating with federal investigators into corruption two years ago, and has gone through the millions of dollars he made in city construction contracts paying for business expenses.
Williams also denies Marjorie’s attorney’s assertion that she owned some of those companies in name only and had no role in running them.
“The fact of the matter is, Ms. Mitchell knew what Mr. Mitchell was doing as far as his business activities, and if you look at the records she is the sole member on some of those companies, Cascade Building Companies in particular,” Williams told 11Alive. “Did she know about the bribes? I don't have any knowledge of that.”
Marjorie said she had no knowledge that her husband was bribing someone at City Hall for construction contracts.
DOCUMENTS | Read the subpoena
During today’s proceedings, the judge ordered E.R. to refrain from spending any money until both parties can account for all the money they have and all the bills they owe. E.R. Mitchell is set to be sentenced next month for his role in the bribery scandal.
E.R. is one of two city contractors who were convicted in February of bribing City of Atlanta employees for business; Charles Richards was also charged in connection to the bribery scandal. Last month, the city released more than 1.4 million documents related to the scandal, which named Mitzy Bickers as a key player in the investigation.
Bickers, a former city employee, left her job amid allegations of ethics violations. She was the first City of Atlanta worker to be subpoenaed by investigators for her connection to the scandal. Shortly after, Adam Smith, the Chief Procurement Officer for Atlanta was fired after the FBI seized his cell phone and computer. He has not been charged with anything at this time.
PHOTOS | This is what 1.4M documents looks like at City Hall
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