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Just over a month after he was found guilty of conspiracy to embezzle government funds, Zahn is asking to be acquitted, or otherwise be granted a new trial.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ex-JEA CEO Aaron Zahn filed a 25-page motion for acquittal Monday.
Zahn is asking that he either be acquitted of his crimes or be granted a new trial.
He was found guilty of conspiracy to embezzle federal property and wire fraud at the conclusion of a nearly month-long trial on March 14. He was tried alongside ex-CFO Ryan Wannemacher, who was found not guilty on both of these charges.
Zahn’s attorneys made several motions for his acquittal throughout the trial, which were all denied. In the new filing, his attorney argues that the federal government didn’t prove his guilt at the trial.
Zahn was implicated in an elaborate scheme which would have netted him and other executives hundreds of thousands of dollars if JEA were to be sold.
The motion, undersigned by Zahn’s attorney A. Brian Albritton, says the government failed to prove that the “alleged scheme” even involved money that belonged to JEA or the city of Jacksonville, only that the money or property might be obtained in the future (as through a sale), and then could have been stolen.
Albritton goes on to list a litany of things Zahn’s team believes the government “failed” to prove, including his intentions to commit fraud, or that he lied.
The motion also says that the wire fraud charge — based on JEA’s board meetings being broadcast online — does not apply here because it wasn’t Zahn’s idea to broadcast the meetings. This was repeatedly brought up by Zahn’s attorneys during his trial, and used both as a basis to ask for a mistrial and for an argument in favor of Zahn’s innocence. It was unsuccessful on both counts.
The motion goes on to say that Zahn’s first amendment rights are being violated because the government is trying to police what he did, or did not, have the responsibility to say while committing the scheme. This claim harkens back to claims made during the trial that Zahn was a victim of dirty politics and being quashed by an unfair government.
Albritton argues in the motion that the government failed to prove that Zahn was even an “agent of JEA or the City of Jacksonville.” This argument was also attempted, unsuccessfully, by Zahn’s legal team during the trial. The motion also details an argument that the case shouldn’t have been heard in federal court at all.
He claims the government didn’t prove Zahn concealed his plan to make a profit from the bonus scheme, only that he didn’t make sure JEA’s board members intimately understood the plan.
“Mr. Zahn’s purported failure to provide exhausting clarity related to his own potential compensation is not so clearly improper that it falls within the ambit of the wire fraud statute,” Albritton writes.
He argues repeatedly that Zahn’s fiduciary duty — in other words, his ethical obligation — to JEA was “vague,” and the government failed to prove explaining the bonus scheme thoroughly falls under this obligation.
Again referencing the interference of politics, Albritton writes, “Vague or amorphous disclosure requirements risk political misuse based on prosecutors’ subjective notions of morality, because they can make up what the defendant should have said and at whatever level they chose.”
He says Zahn did not have a clear understanding of what he “should” have said to the board when presenting his bonus plan.
“Without a clear external disclosure standard, Mr. Zahn had no notice that he would face federal criminal charges from failing to make the disclosures that the Government, after the fact, contends were required.”
Federal Judge Brian Davis, who has presided over Zahn and Wannemacher’s cases, has not issued a response as of Monday night.
Zahn is set to be sentenced on June 18.
