TOLEDO, Ohio — Weeks before their federal trials on corruption charges were set to begin, three former Toledo City Council members pleaded guilty Friday to accepting bribes during their time in office in return for legislative support, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Tyrone Riley, Yvonne Harper, and Larry Sykes appeared before Judge Jeffrey Helmick to make pleas. Both Riley and Sykes pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act extortion under official color of right, which means a public official wrongfully took money or another valuable not owed to them or their office.
Harper pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act conspiracy. Riley, Sykes and Harper are scheduled to be sentenced in June 2023. The charges the three face all carry up to 20 years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines and up to three years of supervised release.
Harper's attorney, Peter Rost, said his client decided to change her plea from not guilty to guilty after seeing additional evidence.
"The evidence is the evidence. We evaluated it, Yvonne evaluated it, just like the other two defendants evaluated the evidence against them," Rost said. "We made a different decision than we did in the first place. We pleaded not guilty in the first place. The discovery came in, we re-evaluated our position, this is the wisest course of action that Yvonne can take, as well as Larry and Tyrone, I gather, from what they did."
Gary Johnson, the fourth former council member charged in the matter, is expected to appear in front of a federal jury on Jan. 9, 2023.
He was not in court Friday. One of his two attorneys, Rich Kerger, told WTOL 11: "We are proceeding to court. We were never interested in a deal. Gary has always believed he has done nothing wrong and we believe that a jury will agree."
According to court documents, then-sitting council members Riley, Sykes and Harper took bribes for official support and votes on legislative matters on multiple occasions from May 2018 through February 2020, the DOJ said in a press release Friday.
Court documents also show Riley, Sykes and Harper "each accepted cash payments in return for their support and votes on zoning changes and “special use permits” (SUPs) for local businesses," the DOJ said.
According to the DOJ, "Riley accepted more than $5,000 in payments and meals in return for his support on five occasions related to zoning changes and SUPs for businesses. Additionally, on two occasions, Harper accepted more than $5,000 in return for her support of zoning changes and SUPs for businesses. Sykes accepted, on two occasions, approximately $1,500 for his support of SUPs."
Their arrests in 2020 came after an FBI investigation that led authorities to accuse the elected leaders of taking bribes in exchange for votes on business before city council. Federal investigators claim tens of thousands of dollars changed hands in the scandal.
Local attorney Keith Mitchell also was charged in 2020. Mitchell died in 2021 before facing trial.
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