RENO, Nev. (AP) – A jury acquitted a former Nevada sheriff’s deputy of bribery charges Friday after she was accused of accepting nearly $10,000 in gifts in exchange for giving special treatment to the jailed founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video empire.
Ex-Washoe County Sheriff’s Sgt. Michon Mills [pictured] embraced her attorney and broke into tears as the foreman of the jury read the verdict in U.S. District Court in Reno Friday evening.
The 39-year-old Carson City woman had been accused of accepting a $4,500 Cartier watch and a $5,000 Saks Fifth Avenue gift card from an associate of Joe Francis while he was jailed in Reno on tax charges in 2007 and 2008.
Mills, who said she returned the gifts and never considered them bribes, had no immediate comment. The jury, which deliberated for six hours, acquitted her on two counts of accepting a gratuity as a public official. Mills had faced up to two years in prison.
“I’m just thrilled for Michon that the jury saw things for what they really are,” her lawyer, Leah Wigren, told The Associated Press.
Mills testified during the four-day trial that she didn’t initially acknowledge accepting the gifts from Francis’ Hollywood associate Aaron Weinstein because she didn’t want to get lumped in with two other deputies at the jail who were under investigation for aiding Francis.
The two other former deputies have pleaded guilty to accepting a gratuity as a public official. One of them received $3,200 in cash and four Oakland Raiders tickets in exchange for smuggling sushi, barbecued chicken and other food to Francis.
Mills was assigned as the point of contact person for Francis after he was placed in the mental health housing unit of the jail. Prosecutors said he was allowed to run his multimillion dollar soft porn business while he was there.
“Numerous deputies testified they felt there was a ‘hands-off policy’ when it came to defendant Francis,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sue Fahami told the 10-woman, two-man jury earlier Friday. “He seemed to have the run of the house.”
Wigren said in her closing arguments that the government failed to prove her client did anything to benefit Francis based on the gifts.
“There is no nexus between an official act and the gift,” Wigren said.
Mills was given the “unprecedented” assignment to deal directly with Francis and his lawyers because he was internationally known – “a high profile inmate the likes of which they’d never seen before,” Wigren said.
By all accounts, Francis was “very needy … an obnoxious individual … a 35-year-old multimillionaire with serious behavior problems,” Wigren said.
“But it seems from this testimony she’s to blame because inmate Francis was a vulgar person,” she said.
Mills already has suffered enough by losing her job, the lawyer said.
“Her law enforcement career was destroyed,” Wigren said. “She was at the height of her career when her life came crashing into Joe Francis. … She was making about $100,000 a year and now she is a flagger for the highway.”
Back story: RENO, Nev. — from www.businessweek.com – A federal jury began deliberating Friday in the bribery case of a former Nevada sheriff’s deputy accused of accepting nearly $10,000 in gifts to give special treatment to the jailed founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video empire.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sue Fahami said in closing arguments that former Washoe County sheriff’s deputy Michon Mills repeatedly lied about accepting a $4,500 watch and a $5,000 gift card from an associate of Joe Francis while he was jailed in Reno on tax charges in 2007 and 2008.
“We are not here to demonize the defendant, to say she is a horrible person or a mean person or an evil person,” Fahami told the 12 jurors in her closing arguments.
However, “she broke the law in this situation. She took the watch. She took the card and she lied about it. … She flat out lied to everybody,” the prosecutor said.
Mills is charged with accepting a gratuity as a public official.
She testified during the trial that she never considered the gifts to be bribes and returned the $4,500 Cartier watch and a $5,000 Saks Fifth Avenue gift card to the associate, Aaron Weinstein, whom she described as a friend.
She said she didn’t initially acknowledge accepting the gifts because she didn’t want to get “lumped in” with two other deputies at the jail who were under investigation for aiding Francis.
The two former deputies have pleaded guilty to accepting a gratuity as a public official. One of them received $3,200 in cash and four Oakland Raiders tickets in exchange for smuggling sushi, barbecued chicken and other food to Francis.
Mills was assigned as the point of contact person for Francis after he was placed in the mental health housing unit of the jail. Prosecutors said he was allowed to run his multimillion dollar soft porn business while he was there.
“Numerous deputies testified they felt there was a `hands-off policy’ when it came to defendant Francis,” Fahami told jurors. “He seemed to have the run of the house.”
Attorney Leah Wigren, who represents Mills, said in her closing arguments that the government failed to prove her client did anything to benefit Francis based on the gifts.
“There is no nexus between an official act and the gift,” Wigren said.
Mills was given the “unprecedented” assignment to deal directly with Francis and his lawyers because he was internationally known — “a high profile inmate the likes of which they’d never seen before,” Wigren said.
By all accounts, Francis was “very needy … an obnoxious individual … a 35-year-old multimillionaire with serious behavior problems,” Wigren said.
“But it seems from this testimony she’s to blame because inmate Francis was a vulgar person,” she said.
Mills already has suffered enough by losing her job, the lawyer said.
“Her law enforcement career was destroyed,” Wigran said. “She was at the height of her career when her life came crashing into Joe Francis. … She was making about $100,000 a year and now she is a flagger for the highway.”