Betty Jefferson

Barbara "Betty" Jefferson Jackson (born 1938) is the elected assessor of New Orleans' Fourth Municipal District; she was first elected on 1998 February 7 and was reelected in 2002 and 2006.[1] Before her political career in New Orleans she lived for a number of years in Chicago. She is an older sister of convicted felon former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson.

In 2009 Betty Jefferson was a defendant in racketeering charges also involving her brother Mose Jefferson, her daughter Angela Coleman, and Renée Gill Pratt. On 2009 June 5 all the defendants pleaded not guilty.[2]

At a hearing before U. S. District Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle on 2009 June 17, lawyers for Betty Jefferson and Angela Coleman requested a delay from the 2009 August 3 start date for the racketeering trial; at the same hearing, however, lawyers for Gill Pratt and Mose Jefferson requested that the racketeering trial begin as scheduled on August 3.[3] On 2009 July 28, Lemelle delayed the start of the racketeering trial to 2010 January 25.[4]

If proved, the charges—raised under provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act—can result in up to 20 years' imprisonment, $250,000 in fines, and stiff penalties of forfeiture. Some of the charges involved fraudulent use of e-mail.[5]

In an article starting on the front page and extending for almost the entirety of another page, Laura Maggi analyzed Betty Jefferson's imputed connection with William J. Jefferson's conviction.[6]

She died in 2013[7]

Notes
  1. Allen Johnson, "Reassessing Betty Jefferson" Archived January 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine in Gambit (New Orleans), 2009 June 07 (accessed 2009 June 09). Betty Jefferson's assessor position will cease to exist in 2010 by virtue of a 2006 amendment to the Louisiana constitution to reduce the number of assessors in Orleans Parish from seven to just one (Michelle Krupa, "N.O. first solo assessor can't take office until almost 8 months after election, according to new law" in Times-Picayune, 2009 June 10).
  2. Michelle Krupa, "Ex-N.O. official pleads innocent" in Times-Picayune, 2009 June 06, Saint Tammany Edition, pp. A1, A11.
  3. Laura Maggi, "Gill Pratt, Jefferson push for August trial" in Times-Picayune, 2009 June 18, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B3 (web version = Gill Pratt, Mose Jefferson push to keep August trial date).
  4. "Trial delayed for Gill Pratt, Jefferson kin" in Times-Picayune, 2009 July 29, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B3. The bribery trial of Mose Jefferson was still set to begin on 2009 August 10.
  5. U.S. Attorney Eastern District of Louisiana, 2009 May 22.
  6. Laura Maggi "Jefferson family tree is shaken: Mighty political organization falls to legal assault portraying corruption" Archived 2009-08-12 at the Wayback Machine in Times-Picayune, 2009 August 09, Metro Edition, pp. A1, A18. Maggi quotes Betty Jefferson's attorney Eddie Castaing as saying that "The evidence in this case is totally irrelevant to Betty Jefferson" (p. A18).
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2014-01-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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