It should be an interesting day for the grand jurors meeting again today at the Clifford Davis-Odell Horton Federal Building, just down the street from City Hall.
As Commercial Appeal award-winning investigative reporter Marc Perrusquia tells us in this morning's newspaper, "When former Memphis city attorney Elbert Jefferson appears before a federal grand jury this morning, he will be carrying a secret tape recording and a file several inches thick."
And: "The recording and the paperwork document an ethics investigation that Jefferson conducted of former Mayor Willie Herenton."
If you haven't read it, you should go now. We expect to have more later today about the appearance at www.commercialappeal.com.
Jefferson's attorney, Ted Hansom, told Perrusquia late Wednesday that the documents and recordings -- many of them sit-down interviews with Herenton himself -- would prove that Jefferson did not conduct a sham ethics investigation. It's unclear if Hansom and Jefferson believe that the evidence will help or harm Herenton; Hansom, whose name you may recall because he is the longtime attorney for University of Memphis legend Larry Finch, will only say that Jefferson never reached a conclusion about whether Herenton committed city ethics violations because the investigation "wasn't completed."
Jefferson must've received a fright Wednesday evening when WMC-TV Channel 5 sent out an erroneous breaking news e-mail alert saying that Jefferson had received a "target letter" from investigators similar to the one the U.S. Attorney's office sent to Herenton. The station also erroneously reported that Herenton attorney Robert Spence and former special assistant to the mayor Pete Aviotti had also received target letters, which in most cases mean an indictment is imminent. The station sent a correction out 86 minutes after the initial e-mail. None of those men have received target letters, only Herenton (that we know of).
Jefferson, of course, created controversy when he refused to leave office this summer when then-interim mayor Myron Lowery asked for his resignation and then told him he was fired. The City Council voted to side with Jefferson on the matter, but Jefferson's tactic appears to have backfired because of the way it has put him in more severe legal jeopardy, with Shelby County Attorney General Bill Gibbons beginning an investigation into Jefferson's actions (or inactions, as the case may be).
Jefferson finally resigned for good the day after A C Wharton's landslide victory in the special mayoral election, and Wharton's choice for city attorney, former Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division director Herman Morris, is now running the legal office after getting City Council approval.
Morris and Wharton insist they will cooperate and hand over documents requested by legal authorities or media outlets.
One can always HOPE those other target letters DO get sent.