READ JUDGE’S RULING: Judge Denies Finch Renewed Motion for Acquittal
Federal Judge Mark Walker has denied James Finch’s Rule 29 renewed Motion to Acquit based on lack of evidence to convict.
The Lynn Haven developer, who has faced four rewrites to the indictment and a hung jury on both counts of bribery, will face another jury of his peers over a $5,000 check written to a former commissioner as a business loan in 2017.
Prosecutors claim that Finch bribed Barnes for his vote on the financing of the 17th Street Ditch project six month after the financing was awarded unanimously by the commission upon the recommendation of then-City Manager Joel Schubert.
The financing came from Finch himself, who loaned the City $4.4 million at 2.55 percent (when Prime was 5.8 percent). He even told the City not to begin payments until the project was completed, and will accept the last payment when he is 95 years old.
The prosecutors’ main witness, former City Manager Michael White, was sentenced to 3.5 years today for his role in defrauding the taxpayers of more than a million dollars in FEMA money after Hurricane Michael.
The lead prosecutor is Andrew Grogan, who failed to convict former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum last week.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and the Justice Department have spent nearly three years and who-knows how many millions of dollars combined trying to imprison Finch over (1) conspiracy to bribe and (2) a $5,000 check.
“This Court finds that, viewing the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the Government and drawing all reasonable inferences in its favor, a reasonable jury could have found Defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” wrote Judge Walker in today’s ruling.
