Federal Jury Gets City Hall Corruption Case Today

The federal corruption trial of Chris Wright, City Councilman Jack Kelly's former chief of staff, and three political allies, gets back under way this morning with U.S. District Justice Eduardo Robreno finishing his instructions for the jury.  Attorneys for the defendants, Wright, developers Hardeep and Ravinder Chawla, and their attorney, Andy Teitelman, completed their closing arguments on Friday.

The jury is expected to start deliberations this morning.  Wright is accused of accepting $1,000, a rent-free apartment near Rittenhouse Square and free legal services from the Chawla brothers, Kelly's most generous campaign donors, and Teitelman, who was Kelly's campaign treasurer.

The jury of six men and six women in this case includes one city employee, a former employee of the Philadelphia Police Department, two people with relatives who work in law enforcement and one person who was a defendant in a criminal case more than four decades ago.

Check back here throughout the day for updates from the trial.

The judge has completed giving the jury his instructions.  Deliberations on the case have started, three weeks after this trial began.

After 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury already has a question for Judge Robreno.  They want some legal definitions.  Maybe the start of the jury instructions from Friday afternoon turned hazy over the three-day weekend?  Defense attorneys, after taking time to discuss the request, suggested giving the jury copies of the judge's instructions.  Prosecutors agreed.

The jury just passed another note to Judge Robreno, asking for recordings Kelly secretly made in June 2007 of a telephone call to Wright and a face-to-face meeting with Ravinder Chawla.  Kelly was publicly unveiled as a cooperating witness just before the trial started.  Kelly made the recordings after four FBI agents surprised him at home with allegations made about him by a local businessman awaiting sentencing on federal tax and gun charges.  Kelly has not been accused of any wrong-doing.

The judge has decided to bring the jury into the courtroom at 2 p.m., after lunch, to let them listen to the tapes of the conversations recorded by Kelly.

The jury is listening to the tapes, which have a lot of background noise and static. They are following along with transcripts scrolling on two large flat-screen televisions at each end of the jury box. On the tapes, Kelly sounds concerned, almost to the point of panic, about the federal investigation. Wright and Chawla deny any wrong-doing.

Up next, Judge Robreno is going to consider a request from the

Daily News

to release the audio recording of his discussion in chambers last week with a juror who was then dismissed.  Defense attorneys complained that the juror slept during some testimony and glared at their clients while awake.  The

Inquirer

has joined the request for the audio.

Judge Robreno just ruled against the

Daily News

request for the audio, saying he was concerned because the recording "contains the juror’s views concerning one of the participants in the case."  Robreno said he will release the recording after the jury finishes deliberating.  Attorneys for the defendants and the prosecution asked Robreno to hold off on releasing the audio.

Robreno just sent the jury home for the night.  They are due to restart deliberations at 9 a.m. tomorrow.  Robreno approved a request from the jurors to review copies of e-mails between Wright, the Chawla brothers and Teitelman.