A Dallas developer has been accused of offering bribes to former Dallas City council members according to an ABC 8 WFAA article published on December 17th. In it they say:
“A Dallas developer has been indicted on bribery charges for his dealings with two former Dallas City Council members who, prosecutors claim, supported his tax-credit housing projects in exchange for money and promises of future payments. Sherman Roberts, president and chief executive officer of City Wide Community Development Corporation, is charged with two crimes: conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, and bribery concerning a local government receiving federal benefits. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in federal prison. His attorney, Douglas Greene, of Arlington, said Roberts will be making his initial appearance in federal court at 10 a.m. Friday in Dallas. ‘He’s pleading not guilty,’ Greene said.”
The article doesn’t name the former council members involved, but a Dallas Morning News article also from December 17th does. It reports;
“The council members are not named in the indictment, but “Council Member A” is Carolyn Davis and “Council Member B” is Dwaine Caraway, according to evidence in the documents and officials. Davis pleaded guilty in March 2019 in a separate City Hall bribery indictment and died four months later in a car crash that also claimed her daughter. She was accused of accepting money from Ruel Hamilton, a longtime Dallas developer of affordable housing who is scheduled to go to trial next year. The government alleges that Hamilton paid Caraway $7,000 in 2018 for his future help with a proposed real estate development he wanted to build in Caraway’s city council district. Caraway is expected to be the government’s star witness in the Hamilton trial. Caraway, 68, is in federal prison after being convicted in an unrelated federal bribery scandal involving the former Dallas County Schools bus agency. He resigned from office in 2018 after pleading guilty in that corruption case and was sentenced last year to more than four years in prison.”
This isn’t the first time the Dallas City Council has been embroiled in a corruption scandal.
