Real Estate Mogul Jemal To Be Sentenced Today

Six months ago big-time local developer Douglas Jemal was jubilant, thanking federal jurors -- "Thank you, sweetheart," "Thank you, dear" -- for acquitting him on six of seven felony counts involving bribery and fraud.

"God bless you all," a tearful Jemal told jurors as they filed out of the U.S. District Courthouse on Constitution Avenue NW, in the shadow of the Capitol.

Today, the unorthodox real estate mogul will find out whether the verdict was truly worth celebrating.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina is set to sentence the 64-year-old Jemal on a wire fraud charge, the one count he was convicted of. The charge carries up to 20 years in prison, but the suggested federal sentencing guidelines are much lower. He could get only probation.

The U.S. attorney's office, in a biting court document, made it clear it wants Jemal behind bars. It strongly endorsed a recommendation by a probation officer that Jemal get about 3 1/2 years in prison.

"Indeed, the defendant's rationalizations and minimizations for his conduct take on many variations and permutations but reduce to the following: I am too rich, too powerful, too successful, and too entitled to do things my way to be accountable and punished for this 'splinter' of a crime," federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in February.

The federal jury acquitted Jemal of the meatier bribery charges, clearing him of conspiring to pay off a D.C. government leasing official to get sweetheart deals.

But it convicted him and his leasing agent Blake Esherick of wire fraud for creating a phony invoice to get a lending institution to release $430,000 from an escrow account for purposes other than the ones he stated. The defense argued that Jemal had a right to the money and harmed no one.

Esherick was convicted of two counts of tax evasion and was sentenced last month to eight months in prison. Jemal's son Norman Jemal, the company vice president, was acquitted of all criminal charges.

Meanwhile, Jemal's chief financial officer, John E. Brownell, 45, faces sentencing June 7. He pleaded guilty to income tax evasion.

Jemal said last week that it would be inappropriate to comment. He once likened his wire fraud conviction to "stepping on a splinter," a comment that bugged prosecutors enough to use as ammunition in their sentencing memorandum.

Jemal's attorney, Reid H. Weingarten, said late last week: "We argued at trial that while mistakes were made and there were flaws in Douglas's administrative apparatus, Douglas committed no crime. We continue to believe that."

On Thursday, Weingarten filed court papers asking for probation for his client.

In an act of good faith, the document said, Jemal has hired accounting firm KPMG to recommend "internal accounting controls, antifraud programs and controls" to improve his firm, Douglas Development Corp.

Weingarten said he was hopeful the judge would consider the jury's acquittal on six counts and Jemal's contribution to the community.

Asked whether his client was nervous about possibly going to prison, Weingarten said: "Who wouldn't be?"

Allan Lengel covers commercial real estate. His e-mail address islengela@washpost.com.