By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
CLEVELAND: Former Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee made phone calls to judges and prosecutors to try to help the Abdelqader family. She chatted briefly with a judge. And she wrote letters to government agencies.
In exchange, the Abdelqaders and their friends gave Lee small sums of money — $40 to $100 — cigarettes and food, car repairs and donations to her political campaign.
That’s the gist of the bribery case against Lee, who is on trial in U.S. District Court in Cleveland this week, accused of trading her political influence for cash and other goods.
Brothers Omar and Abdelrahman Abdelqader, and Samir Abdelqader, Abdelrahman’s son, pleaded guilty to participating in what federal prosecutors are calling a “conspiracy” between June and August 2014.
Lee, 58, of Akron, a councilwoman from 2011 to 2016, refused to accept a plea agreement and opted instead to take her chances with a jury trial. She claims she did nothing wrong.
Timothy Ivey, one of Lee’s public defenders, said in his opening statement Monday that Omar Abdelqader was a friend who was helping her during a time when she was struggling financially. He said she intended to pay Abdelqader back, didn’t accept anything of immense value and didn’t bribe anyone or take any action related to her job as a councilwoman. He called her actions “benign.”
Investigation
Akron FBI agent Chris Fassler laid out the government’s case against Lee during testimony Tuesday and Wednesday, including a lengthy explanation of the hours of recorded conversations between Lee and Abdelqader, and Lee or Abdelqader and their family members and friends. Many of these conversations were in Arabic and were translated into English.
Fassler said the investigation into Lee began in October 2013 when the FBI received complaints that a local businessman was requesting payments from other area business owners for a local politician who would provide political favors. He said agents determined that Omar Abdelqader, who owns the Bi-Rite convenience store in Akron, was the businessman seeking funds and that Lee was the politician.
Fassler said agents began surveillance of Abdelqader and Lee and started doing “trash covers,” which involves collecting the trash to go through it and look for materials that could be useful. He said they installed a pole camera outside the Bi-Rite store with a closed-circuit camera that provided a view of the front of the store and its drive-thru.
In March 2014, Fassler said agents found a discarded cellphone in Lee’s trash. A search of the phone showed it belonged to Lee and provided numbers that assisted in the investigation.
In May 2014, Fassler said Malek Albanna, a local businessman, agreed to assist the FBI with its investigation. Omar Abdelqader had offered to have Lee write a letter to the IRS to assist George Albanna, Malek’s son, with a matter pending with the federal agency. Malek Albanna agreed to wear a wire to record his conversations with Abdelqader.
Fassler said agents ultimately obtained wiretaps for first Abdelqader’s and then Lee’s cellphones.
Phone calls
These recorded conversations, which started in June 2014, form the cornerstone of the case against Lee.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Barr guided Fassler through call after call, with Fassler providing context about the importance of each conversation. He also discussed the results of surveillance and recorded conversations between Abdelqader and Malek Albanna. Highlights include:
• Omar Abdelqader asked Lee to assist with pending criminal cases against his nephews Samir Abdelqader in Summit County Juvenile Court and Sharif Hahmed in Akron Municipal Court. The two teenage boys were involved in a fight in Akron in June 2014 that culminated with Samir hitting a 28-year-old with his car.
Lee called the juvenile court bailiff and judicial assistant. (There are records of these calls, but not recordings because the wiretap wasn’t up yet on Lee’s phone.)
Abdelrahman Abdelqader, Samir’s father, said he gave Lee $200 for her assistance and would give her an additional $300.
Lee called the bailiff for Akron Municipal Judge Jerry Larson, who was handling Hahmed’s case, Larson and an assistant prosecutor. She also visited the court, where she spoke briefly to Larson and his court staff, saying she was there to be a character witness for Hahmed, whom she called a relative.
• Lee talked to Akron Prosecutor Gert Wilms in July 2014, suggesting that she may want to look into whether charges should also be filed against the 28-year-old who was hit by Samir Abdelqader. The two teens claimed the older man had started the altercation by attacking the them before the car incident.
“I’m not trying to influence you,” Lee told Wilms. “I’m trying to make you think.”
Wilms told Lee it was unlikely charges would be filed because prosecutors rarely second guess the officers at the scene. She said she would look at the case file. (Fassler said no charges were filed against the 28-year-old.)
• Lee and Omar Abdelqader and Abdelqader and Malek Albanna discussed at length Lee’s letter to IRS. Lee wrote the letter on Summit County Council stationary and mailed it to the head of the IRS in Akron in August 2014.
Albanna gave her $200, provided by the FBI.
“She will be useful,” Albanna told Abdelqader in a recorded conversations.
• Lee frequently asked Abdelqader for small amounts of money, most ranging from $40 to $100 to help pay her bills or to buy gas, dog food or groceries.
• Abdelqader solicited campaign donations for Lee from other business owners. Lee told one of her sisters that she hoped Abdelqader would raise $3,000.
Abdelqader said the donations would help Lee to survive while he traveled abroad.
Fassler said Lee deposited the donations Abdelqader collected into her personal bank accounts, not her campaign account.
Arrest
When Abdelqader left the country, he suggested that Lee call on Albanna if she needed any help while he was gone.
Lee called on Albanna once when she had a problem with her car. Albanna owns Prestige Auto and covered the cost of the repairs to Lee’s vehicle and gave her another $50.
Lee, though, became suspicious that Albanna might be taping their conversations, expressing her concerns in a conversation with one of her sisters in August 2014.
Fassler said FBI agents interviewed Lee and Omar Abdelqader, who had by then returned to the United States, in September 2014. Lee discussed the FBI interviews with Abdelqader, who said he never gave Lee anything for free because she planned to repay him.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” he told her.
Fassler said agents executed search warrants at the Bi-Rite store and Lee’s home. He said they found a tab for Lee at Bi-Rite with a long list of numbers.
Defense questions
Darin Thompson, one of Lee’s attorneys, questioned Fassler about parts of the phone conversations that prosecutors hadn’t emphasized.
Fassler agreed that Lee and Abdelqader had discussed many personal issues, like Lee’s financial troubles and marital issues, as well as what she was doing for him and he was doing for her. He also admitted that Lee sometimes used the term “borrow” when she asked Abdelqader and Albanna for money.
Fassler also said Lee wasn’t the only customer at Bi-Rite who had a tab.
Lee’s trial will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com or on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .