Ruel Hamilton, a real estate developer, is currently facing a retrial on federal bribery charges, over a year after his initial conviction was overturned. Hamilton has been accused of bribing two previous Dallas City Council members for their support of his subsidized low-income housing projects, according to D Magazine.
In June 2021, Hamilton was first found guilty of allegedly bribing former Dallas City Council members Dwaine Caraway and the late Carolyn Davis. This conviction, however, was vacated by a three-judge Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel in August 2022. The panel agreed with Hamilton's defense, led by prominent lawyer Abbe Lowell, that the prosecution had improperly guided the jury on the difference between "quid pro quo" and gratuities, as reported by WFAA.
Regarding the accusation by the prosecution, Hamilton allegedly paid Davis around $40,000 for her endorsement of one of his properties. The Court of Appeals suggested that Davis's payments could not be considered bribes, but rather gratuities, following which, the federal prosecution has elected to reopen the case rather than waiting for the Supreme Court's review of the verdict.
Anticipating the retrial, Hamilton's legal advisors have submitted numerous dismissal motions. As of November 13, there is yet to be a written opinion rejecting this motion and setting a trial date by U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn. The federal prosecution maintains that amending the indictment is unnecessary and that Hamilton's lawyers are misinterpreting the Fifth Circuit's verdict.
The bribery case, which began in 2019, indicted Hamilton alongside Davis and Caraway. The initial 2021 trial's evidence revealed that Hamilton paid Davis upwards of $40,000 in cash and goods from 2013 through 2015 and handed a $7,000 personal check to Caraway in 2018, as WFAA recounted. It was alleged that these payments were received by Davis and Caraway as a reward for promising to back Hamilton's affordable housing plans politically.
At the initial trial, former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings appeared as a prosecution witness and shared insights into city governance, as reported by NBC DFW.
