Thursday, Capital Grille; Friday, Federal Court

One recent Thursday, Jemal sat at his usual spot in a curved booth in the back of the place. He and his guests ate from a silver plate stacked with lamb chops and rib-eye steaks, served family style, and drank a 2002 Cabernet Syrah.

Shrewd, admired for his business acumen, criticized for cursing what can seem like every other word, feared for his occasional temper, Jemal commands attention.

"This trial will be watched by everybody," said Richard Bradley, executive director of the Downtown Business Improvement District. "He's larger than life compared with most of the people in the field. He was a pioneer in parts of the city, and he's very much respected, liked and appreciated. People will watch this very closely."

Robert A. Peck, the former president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade who is now a senior vice president at real estate services firm Staubach Co., said: "Jemal is a unique personality. He's a risk-taking real estate guy who was in marginal neighborhoods before they turned hot.

"I think a lot of people wish him well, and there's a lot of curiosity about how this is going to come out."

Jemal is a builder and a manager of 10 million square feet of office, retail, commercial and residential properties in 185 buildings in the region. He plans to redevelop land he owns on the banks of the Anacostia River in Southeast, hoping to echo Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and wants to redevelop the car-repair garages and abandoned rowhouses on a stretch of New York Avenue NW near the convention center. He has London architect Norman Foster working on designs to redevelop the shuttered Uline Arena near Union Station in Northeast.

The Trial

When he announced Jemal's indictment last fall, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein said, "To those who do business with the government it shows that the honest services of our public servants are not up for sale." At the same time, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), a longtime supporter of Jemal's, issued a statement encouraging Wainstein to "aggressively root out corruption anywhere he finds it."

Jemal has long been controversial. He has been sued by contractors who accused him of lateness and not paying bills for construction materials and other services. They say he keeps sloppy paperwork, making it hard to bill and collect from him. He disputes the charges but agrees that his back-of-the-house bookkeeping isn't always neat and orderly. Others credit him with saving historic facades and admire how he calculates in his head what his returns will be and makes deals with a handshake.

"Why am I successful?" Jemal said. "Because I'm a [favorite expletive deleted] daredevil."

Jemal is being defended by white-collar-crime lawyer Reid H. Weingarten, whose clients have included defendants in the scandals at Enron Corp., Rite Aid Corp., Tyco International Ltd. and WorldCom Inc. Weingarten recently defended a Naval Academy midshipman accused of rape. Earlier, as a prosecutor, he was involved in the case of an official who was accused of lying to Congress in the Iran-contra investigation.

Jemal, his son and Esherick have a defense team of at least seven lawyers. They are not saying whether Jemal will testify in the trial, which is expected to last four to six weeks. They are expected to call to the stand city officials, real estate brokers familiar with the deals and community leaders.

In 2003, the D.C. Council investigated Jemal's ties to Lorusso, who had broad influence in deciding which properties the city leased and bought. In those hearings, Jemal testified but invoked his right against self-incrimination 23 times. Lorusso was fired from his city job in 2003, pleaded guilty in 2004 and agreed to help prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark H. Dubester, the lead prosecutor, has successfully prosecuted several fraud and conspiracy cases, including the conviction of a former D.C. school board member for theft and tax evasion.