Appeals court denies former city employee’s request for new trial following fraud conviction

ATLANTA — A federal appeals court has denied a former Atlanta city employee’s requests for a new trial after being convicted of federal bribery charges.

Mitzi Bickers was found guilty of accepting bribes in exchange for steering nearly $20 million in city contracts to local businessmen.

Bickers was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, three counts of money laundering, four counts of wire fraud, and one count of tax evasion.

In Wednesday’s ruling, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said “We find no reversible error” that would require a new trial.

The court did vacate the sentence over four wire fraud charges against Bickers and remanded the case “back to the district court for limited resentencing.”

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Bickers, a one-time confidante of former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, played a key role in his 2009 election and later headed his Office of Human Services for a little more than three years.

During her trial in 2023, Bickers was acquitted on bribery allegations related to some activities in Jackson, Mississippi, and bribery-related allegations concerning millions of dollars in contracts in Atlanta after she left her position with the city in 2013.

She was also acquitted of tampering with a witness.

Bickers was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $3,000,000 in restitution to the City of Atlanta.

The judge also ordered Bickers to surrender her lake home, a GMC Acadia Denali, and four Yamaha jet skis because she purchased them with funds from the bribery.

Bickers’ case was the first to go before a jury in a nearly decade-long corruption investigation of the Atlanta city government.

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Former City of Atlanta employee Mitzi Bickers sentenced on federal bribery charges Bickers was sentenced to 14 years in prison and to pay nearly $3,000,000 in restitution.

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