JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Prosecutors have submitted the list of witnesses they plan to call in the trial of two former JEA executives facing federal charges of conspiracy and wire fraud.
The trial is on track for February, although defense attorneys have raised the possibility of asking for a delay. The next pre-trial hearing is Jan. 17.
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Former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and his chief financial officer, Ryan Wannemacher, were indicted in March 2022, for their alleged roles in a proposed bonus plan that could have paid out millions of dollars if the city-owned utility was sold, as was being considered in 2019. They both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Zahn and Wannemacher’s trial was initially set for May 2022, then delayed to May 2023. In January, a judge postponed the trial to October 2023. Then, in June, following an eight-day Kastigar hearing, the judge moved the trial to February 2024.
Defense attorneys have been challenging the indictment in court over the use of statements that Zahn and Wannemacher gave to city attorneys in January 2020 during an investigation into whether or not JEA could fire Zahn with “cause.” The statements were covered by what are known as Garrity protections, which are extended to public employees who are compelled to testify as part of a workplace investigation and protect the statements from being used against them in a criminal case.
The Kastigar hearing, conducted in May, was held for prosecutors to prove their case was not built, either directly or indirectly, on the protected statements. Attorneys for Wannemacher contended that statements he gave during a city council hearing convened by council members Rory Diamond and Ron Salem, known as the “Diamond-Salem Hearing,” were also covered by Garrity protections.
The federal magistrate judge who conducted the hearing, Judge Monte C. Richardson, issued two preliminary reports based on the hearing, concluding that Wannemacher’s statements at the Diamond-Salem hearing were not covered by Garrity protections and that prosecutors had shown an independent basis for the evidence in the case. Defense attorneys filed objections to each report, and prosecutors were then given a chance to respond to the objections.
It will be up to District Judge Brian J. Davis to issue a final ruling on the motions related to the Garrity-protected statements. In the order released Dec. 18, Davis also alluded to other concerns from the defense about prosecution witnesses, and as part of that, Davis gave prosecutors a Dec. 29 deadline to submit their witness list for trial.
DOCUMENT: Witness list submitted by prosecution in U.S. vs. Aaron Zahn & Ryan Wannemacher
Among some of the notable names on the list are:
- JEA-related witnesses: Paul McElroy, former JEA CEO; Melissa Dykes, was COO under Zahn and interim CEO briefly after Zahn was let go; Jay Stowe, current CEO of JEA
- Former board members: Kelly Flanagan, Andy Allen, Alan Howard, Fred Newbill, April Green, Camille Lee Johnson
- City-related witnesses: Kyle Billy, former City Council auditor; Jeff Rodda, assistant council auditor; Kim Taylor, council auditor; Jason Gabriel, former general counsel for city
- Others of note: Sam Mousa, former chief administrative officer for the city, who testified before the city council investigative committee at one point; two executives with NextEra, the parent company of FPL -- one of the main bidders to purchase JEA; Matt Schellenberg, former city council member; Kevin Hyde, former city council president who is currently with the Foley Lardner law firm, which did some work for JEA