CINCINNATI — Former Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Pastor has agreed to plead guilty in his public corruption case.
Pastor has agreed to plead guilty to honor services wire fraud, according to a plea agreement filed late Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland set a change of plea hearing for June 7. Afterward he will likely order a pre-sentence investigation for Pastor, which generally takes three months to complete, and then set a sentencing date.
FBI agents arrested Pastor at his home in the early morning hours of Nov. 10, 2020. In addition to wire fraud, a federal grand jury charged Pastor with bribery, attempted extortion, money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was accused of taking $55,000 in bribes, and a luxury weekend trip to Miami on a private plane, in exchange for votes on two development deals.
In the plea deal, Pastor only admits to taking $15,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents who were posing as developers and wanted help pushing through a Downtown project.
Legal experts say this reduced bribe amount likely cut Pastor's potential prison exposure by months or even years. He now likely faces 18 months in prison, which is the same sentence U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott gave to former councilperson Tamaya Dennard in November 2020 after she pleaded guilty to the same charge as Pastor, and admitted taking $15,000 in bribe money which she then had to repay.
Dennard served just over one year of that prison sentence, followed by several months of house arrest.
Prosecutors agree not to seek a sentence longer than two years and Pastor is allowed to seek a sentence of probation, according to the plea deal which also calls for Pastor to repay the $15,000 he admitted taking in bribes.
When David DeVillers, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced Pastor's indictment he referred to a "culture of corruption" in the city. The FBI had already arrested then-council president pro tem Dennard months before.
P.G. Sittenfield was arrested one week after Pastor, with a jury convicting him of bribery and attempted extortion last July. No sentencing date has been set.
Pastor kept a low profile following the indictment, relying on his attorney Ben Dusing to do the talking, suggesting the FBI targeted his client because of his youth, political inexperience and naivete. Pastor was then forced to find a new attorney when Dusing was temporarily suspended from practicing law in 2020.
His current attorney, public defender Karen Savir, did not respond to a request for comment.
Pastor's co-defendant, Tyran Marshall, has not changed his plea. The judge set a status conference in his case for June 7, after Pastor's in-person court hearing.
Marshall allegedly acted as a middleman in receiving bribes, and Pastor used Marshall’s nonprofit, Ummah Strength, LLC to “sanitize” money, according to the indictment.
Pastor and Marshall flew to Miami in September 2018 on a private plane to meet with investors, who were actually FBI agents. Pastor never paid for or disclosed the trip, according to the indictment.
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