CLEVELAND: A Summit County politician who traded political favors for cash and other items or a woman in need being helped by a family friend.
These were the two very different portrayals of former Summit County councilwoman Tamela Lee made by attorneys Tuesday during opening statements in Lee’s bribery trial in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
“The citizens of Summit County deserve better,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Hollingsworth said.
“Ms. Lee is not a criminal — and the government will not be able to prove her as such,” countered Timothy Ivey, one of Lee’s public defenders.
Lee, 58, of Akron, a Summit County Council member from 2011 to 2016, is facing six federal charges for allegedly accepting small amounts of cash, other goods and campaign contributions in exchange for using her political influence to help Omar Abdelqader and his family. Abdelqader is the owner of the Bi-Rite convenience store in Akron and other local businesses.
Lee, who also is the former second-highest ranking member of the Summit County Democratic Party, has denied any wrongdoing. She refused to accept a plea deal that included 30 months in jail.
Omar Abdelqader, his brother, and his nephew have all pleaded guilty for their part in what federal prosecutors have dubbed a “conspiracy.”
Hollingsworth in his opening statement said Lee accepted small amounts of cash — $40, $100 — and merchandise from Omar Abdelqader. As time went on, he said, she tried to disguise his gifts as campaign contributions. He said this happened between June and August 2014.
“That money went straight into her personal bank account,” Hollingsworth said. “She got to use him as her personal ATM machine.”
In exchange, Hollingsworth said, Abdelqader turned to Lee for her political clout to assist him and his family members when they had problems.
Hollingsworth said prosecutors will share with jurors dozens of recorded calls between Lee and Abdelqader and between Abdelqader and his family members and friends that focus on his “quid pro quo” arrangement with Lee. These calls were obtained from wire taps of Lee and Abdelqader’s phones. Some of the calls are in Arabic and were translated by FBI linguists, Hollingsworth said.
Hollingsworth said Lee tried to use her political position to influence the outcome of criminal cases involving two of Abdelqader’s nephews and an IRS investigation involving Abdelqader’s friend’s son. He said she reached out to judges and prosecutors and wrote a letter to the head of the IRS in Akron that vouched for a man she had never before met.
Hollingsworth said jurors will see bank and phone records and hear from the prosecutor and judge whom Lee tried to influence.
When Lee learned that the FBI was investigating her, he said she threw away her copy of the IRS letter she had sent and lied to FBI agents.
Ivey, however, painted a very different picture. He said Lee married Sharaf Al-Mulaiki, the owner of a former convenience store in Akron called the Carriage House and a good friend of Abdelqader. He said when Al-Mulaiki went to his native Yemen in 2013, he asked Abdelqader to look after Lee and help her with anything she needed while he was gone, which he would repay upon his return. Ivey said the same arrangement applied to the summer of 2014 when Al-Mulaiki again traveled to Yemen.
This time, however, Ivey said Al-Mulaiki didn’t maintain contact with Lee. He said Lee became distraught and relied on Abdelqader for emotional and financial support. He said Lee again received cigarettes, snacks and small amounts of cash from Abdelqader like she had during her husband’s previous trip abroad.
“It’s for that reason and that reason only that she received small gifts,” Ivey said. “It’s not in exchange for quid pro quo or to sell her office.”
Ivey asked the jurors, as they listen to the recordings, to listen not only for what is said, but also what isn’t said.
“You will not hear Ms. Lee demand: ‘I won’t do anything for you unless you give me …’ ” Ivey said.
Likewise, Ivey said jurors won’t hear Lee threaten anyone. As a Summit County councilwoman, he said, she held no sway over the IRS or an Akron Municipal Court judge. He said she did “benign things,” like saying she was a character witness for someone with a criminal case.
Ivey said Lee didn’t try to bribe anyone to get them to do her bidding.
Ivey said the conversations the government taped concern not only what Abdelqader was asking for her help with but also Lee’s despondency about not hearing from her husband and her worsening financial situation. He said Abdelqader may have exaggerated the sway he held with Lee to inflate his importance among his family and friends.
Ivey said the FBI agents who questioned Lee didn’t record it, so there is no evidence of what was said or wasn’t said. He said Lee suffers from heart problems and hypertension and, during one of her sessions with the FBI, was evaluated by paramedics.
Ivey said there wasn’t any formal agreement between Lee and Abdelqader and Lee didn’t receive massive sums of money, jewels or furs.
“Whatever favors she did had nothing to do with the duties of a Summit County councilman,” Ivey said. “She did not do anything that was before council for review.”
Lee’s trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Judge Christopher Boyko’s courtroom.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com or on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .