Brenda Jefferson Foster

Brenda Jefferson Foster (1955 – May 17, 2010 in Lake Providence, Louisiana) was a witness for the prosecution in the 2008-2009 trials of her older siblings Betty Jefferson and Mose Jefferson, Betty Jefferson's daughter Angela Coleman, and Mose Jefferson's companion former City Councilwoman Renée Gill Pratt.[1]

Brenda Jefferson Foster had originally been charged with some of the same offenses but accepted a plea bargain. In exchange for pleading guilty to a minor charge, she averted being prosecuted for the major offenses but agreed to serve as a witness for the office of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. All the remaining defendants pleaded not guilty in U.S. Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on 2009 June 5. At the 2009 June 5 arraignment U.S. Magistrate Joseph Wilkinson Jr. instructed the four defendants to refrain from contact with Brenda Jefferson Foster.[2]

In a 2009 May 28 editorial the New Orleans Times-Picayune acknowledged Brenda Jefferson Foster's admission of her part in the alleged fraudulent activities.[3]

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 Renée Gill Pratt and Mose Jefferson requested that the racketeering trial begin as scheduled on August 3.[4] On 2009 July 28, Lemelle delayed the start of the racketeering trial to 2010 January 25.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ The indictment is available on the WVUE-TV New Orleans Channel 8 site. See also William J. Jefferson and Angela Coleman.
  2. ↑ Michelle Krupa, "Ex-N.O. official pleads innocent" in Times-Picayune, 2009 June 06, Saint Tammany Edition, pp. A1, A11. [Former Councilwoman Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges"] on WDSU-TV New Orleans Channel 6, 2009 June 05 (retrieved 2009 June 06).
  3. ↑ "An expected indictment" in Times-Picayune, 2009 May 28.
  4. ↑ 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).
  5. ↑ "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.


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