Ex-Hallandale Mayor Joy Cooper found not guilty
HALLANDALE BEACH – Joy Cooper, the mayor of Hallandale Beach until her arrest on corruption charges nearly two years ago, was acquitted on all six counts Tuesday by a Broward jury.
Cooper teared up at the news and, once the jury had left the courtroom, was showered with hugs by more than two dozen supporters.
“I just want to thank God,” she said, wiping away tears. “And my husband and my family who have stood by me — and my attorneys. It’s been very hard for me.”
Because she was acquitted, Cooper can serve out the remainder of her mayoral term, which ends in November 2020. But as she left the courtroom, she declined to say whether she plans to return.
Cooper has spent nearly two years under a cloud after being accused of accepting $5,000 in illegal campaign money seven years ago.
She was arrested on corruption charges on Jan. 25, 2018, and faced a slew of charges: accepting illegal campaign contributions, two counts of money laundering, official misconduct and soliciting contributions in a government building. Prosecutors later dropped the money laundering charges.
Jurors heard closing arguments Tuesday afternoon and took a little more than two hours to return a verdict.
When the court learned the jury had a verdict at 5:19 p.m., Cooper attorney Larry Davis warned her supporters to show no reaction when the verdict was read, whether good or bad.
“I’m just thrilled by the verdict,” Davis said Tuesday in a courtroom hallway as Cooper and her supporters celebrated. “I think we showed that the state’s case was based on a witness who had a lot of issues and a lot of problems.”
Alan Koslow, a onceprominent lobbyist, spent two days on the stand as the state’s star witness.
During his closing arguments, Cooper’s attorney chipped away at Koslow, reminding jurors of his longtime cocaine addiction, his memory lapses on the stand and his cheeky responses during cross-examination.
Cooper met six times in 2012 with Koslow and two out-of-town developers seeking political favor for a high-rise project in Hallandale Beach, prosecutor
Catherine Maus told the six jurors in her closing statement. The developers were actually undercover agents for the FBI.
Neither Cooper nor Koslow had any clue the conversations were being recorded.
Maus told the jury that Cooper solicited and accepted $5,000 in illegal campaign money funneled to her through Koslow via several Russian teachers. The teachers agreed to make out checks for $500 with the promise they’d be reimbursed, Maus said.
During their first meeting with the agents in July 2012, Koslow showed Cooper a number and asked her if it would do.
Cooper’s response was caught on the FBI recording: “No, add a zero.”
At the start of the trial, Cooper’s attorney told jurors it was the FBI who got hustled by Koslow.
On Tuesday, Davis propped a poster board in front of jurors bearing a statement Koslow made during his testimony: “If I said it, it doesn’t mean that’s true.”
Koslow made the comment after Davis asked him whether he asked his “developer” pals for a $5,000 loan to pay for a girlfriend’s implants.
“Koslow was at the top of his game,” Davis said. “He was a successful lawyerlobbyist. He fooled his firm. He fooled his clients. And he fooled many, many elected officials. An addict knows how to cover up his tracks. And that’s what he was doing.”
Davis argued that Koslow kept the cash the FBI agents gave him and kept Cooper in the dark about the illegal campaign finance scheme.
“Koslow is the only witness who says Joy Cooper knew about this,” Davis said. “This case begins and ends with Alan Koslow.”
Cooper, who did not take the stand to testify, believed the 10 checks that came in from the teacher were legitimate campaign checks, Davis told jurors.
She never gave the FBI agents posing as developers a guarantee that she’d vote for their project in exchange for campaign donations, Davis added.
“If she would have ever given these FBI agents a guarantee that she was going to give them a vote in exchange for a campaign donation, she would have been arrested in 2012 for a federal crime of bribery,” Davis told the jury.
Maus played a video of Cooper, Koslow and the two “developers” meeting at a diner back in 2012. One agent asks about the campaign money. “You guys have been great,” Cooper says in response.
“You don’t have to believe Alan Koslow to find the defendant guilty,” Maus told the jury. “You can take her at her word.”
Jurors began their deliberations shortly before 3 p.m. and returned with a verdict a little more than two hours later.
As they left the courtroom, Cooper’s supporters thanked them and wished them a “happy Thanksgiving.”