It brought me no joy to read that Jackson city councilor Angelique Lee resigned and admitted to conspiracy to commit bribery.
We are all sinners. Greed is a powerful force. There but for the grace of God go I.
There were other warning signs. Lee had been arrested for a DUI. Her paycheck was garnished for unpaid campaign debts. She was struggling. That laid the groundwork for her giving in to temptation.
Let that be a warning to us all. It is when we are most stressed that the threat of temptation is the greatest. During periods of stress, you must rely on God, not earthly things for salvation. Easier said than done.
Court documents refer to other unindicted co-conspirators. There is a very good chance that Lee, being the first, is trading information and cooperation for leniency. No doubt there are some very worried people out there. Time will tell.
Lee was tempted by FBI agents posing as developers interested in building a hotel next to the convention center. The agents took a bunch of city councilors to lunch at the Capital Club downtown.
As my sources tell it, the agents were suspicious from the get go, having no architectural drawing or business plan. Typically, developers spend a lot of money upfront with impressive looking brochures and drawings. Not these guys.
And they were very vague in what they were proposing or what they were looking for. “What do we need to do to get this done,” they asked.
One councilman naively, or maybe not so naively, explained the basic process of getting a permit, going before the council, obtaining the needed voters, ensuring the mayor’s support, etc.
Another councilman flat out said, “If you’re looking for anything improper or illegal, I’m not your man.”
Apparently, Lee was not so vociferous in defense of her propriety. That was a hint to the agents and they honed in on her. Further meetings occurred, credit cards were offered, money changed hands and the rest is history.
Entrapment is a complicated defense. Entrapment is a complete defense to a criminal charge, on the theory that "Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute." Jacobson v. United States, U. S. Supreme Court, 1992.
A valid entrapment defense has two related elements: (1) government inducement of the crime, and (2) the defendant's lack of predisposition to engage in the criminal conduct, Mathews v. United States, U. S. Supreme Court, 1988.
But like all laws, it’s a battle of words, and most of them don't rhyme. What exactly constitutes “inducement?” What constitutes “predisposition?”
No doubt, FBI agents assigned to battle white collar crime are carefully versed in exactly what to do and not do to avoid an entrapment defense.
Lee, clearly being hard-pressed for money, was not in a position to hire a high-level defense attorney who could successfully argue an entrapment defense against the United States government.
Being a contrarian, I see a big downside to an all-powerful government having free reign to entrap citizens. Unfortunately, such tactics are one of the best tools for catching bad actors.
A lot of entrapment type tactics are involved on the Internet. Law enforcement officers constantly scour the Internet trying to lure lustful men into prostitution and worse with online offers.
Smart people, even those inclined to sin, are quick to see the risk and would never fall for it. But the world is not just full of smart people. Lower functioning individuals get lured into these online offers and ruin their lives. So sad. Would they have sought out these crimes on their own? Or was their criminal activity a result of the government action?
I offer no clear solution but we should be aware of the dangerous aspect of massive government-run entrapment programs, especially when expensive Supreme Court mandated defenses are beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.
I have been tempted numerous times to violate the law or at least push the envelope of a “gray area.” By the grace of God, I learned my lessons early, so when it really mattered I was prepared. Not everybody is so blessed.
Years ago, I was pressured for a bribe by a Jackson city councilor who later went to jail on an unrelated bribery conviction.
At the time, getting the Jackson publishing contract for city legals was a big deal, involving something like $100,000 a year. I was consistently the low bidder, but the council kept giving it to another local weekly in the city that was more politically connected.
I met with each city councilor arguing my case, explaining that the law required the council to award the contract to the low bidder. While meeting with one councilor, he flat out said, “What’s in it for me?” I naively said something like, “a fair contract that’s good for the city.”
I didn’t get the contract and the councilman went to jail. Later, I appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court and won.
