City worker innocent in bribery case

A supervisor in the city's Revenue Department who was fired last year and charged with taking nearly $5,000 in bribes has been found not guilty by a Common Pleas jury.

Mark Holt, 55, thanked God that he was cleared Monday of the charges and said he was looking forward to returning to the Revenue Department, where he had worked for nearly 20 years.

"It's just been a lot of trauma this year," he said in an interview yesterday. "It feels like it's been 10 years out of my life. It's been hard on my family. But I'm glad I have been redeemed.

"Certainly I am going to return to my job. They had no business doing this to me in the beginning. I'm glad it's over and I'm going back to work."

Holt said he has not yet talked with anyone in the Revenue Department about his job because, "I'm still trying to catch my breath."

His attorney, Mark Keenheel, said: "I'm just very, very happy for him. He's a great guy, a family man. I'm just thrilled that he gets to go back to his family and, hopefully, he can resume his life."

Following a three-day trial at the Criminal Justice Center, the jury found Holt not guilty of theft by deception-false impression, receiving stolen property and obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.

Before the trial, Assistant District Attorney Sybil Murphy dropped bribery, corruption and two theft charges.

Holt, whose job was to investigate real-estate-tax-abatement applications, was arrested a year ago this week.

In a statement released to the media at the time, the District Attorney's Office said Holt had asked a local contractor to pay him a nonexistent cash fee to process abatement approvals on a property that the contractor owns.

Holt met with an undercover detective from the D.A.'s office posing as the contractor, and allegedly accepted an envelope containing close to $5,000 in cash, according to the statement.

Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the D.A.'s office, said: "We respect the jury's decision but we disagree with it."