Sea Fox executives hired Fields and Aaron Hicks as consultants who were tasked with promoting the project and lobbying City Council members to get the deal over the finish line. The company agreed to pay Fields $30,000 up front and $5,000 per month; Hicks was to be paid $20,000 for two months work and $5,000 for the two months after, charging documents state.
But authorities said Hicks paid Heyward and Mike A. Brown, who represents District 1, a cut of his consulting fees in exchange for their vote. The boat manufacturer wasn’t aware of the bribes, Hicks said during a previous court appearance.
Prosecutors also accused Sandino Moses, the former District 3 city councilman, of accepting $450 in cash from Fields.
Fields met Moses at his apartment to discuss his interest in consulting, as well as Sea Fox plans. Fields mentioned a project he was working on to benefit local churches. After Moses expressed interest in the project, Fields gave him $200 in cash, saying he would provide more details later.
The two met a few days later. They discussed the Sea Fox proposal again, and Fields gave him an additional $250 in cash. Moses asked for more information about the church project but Fields did not provide any. Moses left the meeting concerned the cash was a bribe for his support of the rezoning application.
Moses later returned the $450 after recognizing the payments as bribes. He told Fields he wouldn’t back the rezoning effort, prosecutors said, but he never alerted authorities.
City Council ultimately didn’t vote on the matter, and the park project later fell apart after Sea Fox withdrew from the agreement once it became clear support wasn’t there.
Four people — Heyward, Hicks, Moses and Donavan Moten, one of the nonprofit leaders — signed plea agreements before a judge had even unsealed the charges against them. Fields and Brown, along with another nonprofit leader and the head of a financial company, entered not guilty pleas on March 11.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)