Corrine Brown witnesses limited Thursday; December sentencing for ‘One Door’ 3

A new trial is ordered for Corrine Brown.

While Corrine Brown, Ronnie Simmons and Carla Wiley have sentencing hearings this week in federal court, their fates won’t be known until December 4.

The Court will take what is heard in the hearing “under advisement and will reconvene on Monday, December 4, 2017 at 10:00 a.m..”

Brown also now faces a hard limit on character witness speaking times.

“While the Court will hear from all who wish to speak, the Court must set some time limits. Ms. Brown may designate three character witnesses who may each speak for up to five minutes; her other character witnesses may speak for up to two minutes each.”

Brown’s hearing is Thursday morning at 10 a.m, while her co-conspirators face hearings on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.

Brown is expected to have a robust witness list, as her contention is that probation would be a means of “restorative justice.”

“Corrine Brown respectfully requests that this Court show mercy and compassion and impose a term or probation [SIC]. Brown’s over forty years of dedicated public service, her age, her health, and a comparison of other public integrity cases with her case justify a sentence of probation. The interests of justice would not be served by imposing a sentence of imprisonment,” the memo asserts.

The feds want prison for at least seven years, but Brown’s attorney says that would be “warehousing” Brown, stopping her from doing “what she does best” — “helping people.”

The feds, meanwhile, paint Brown’s defense as riddled with falsehoods and misrepresentations. And they called attention in their sentencing memo to what they see as the true lost opportunity cost of the case.

“The real travesty of this case is what One Door could have been. Corrine Brown had the power, willing donation base, and clear opportunity to transform One Door into a life changing charity,” the Feds assert. “Brown, Simmons, and Wiley not only squandered this opportunity, they abused it for their own benefit. The victims in this case are the students who received nothing.”

For two days this week, the skeleton of this case will be rehashed again in a Jacksonville courthouse.