DALLAS — A Dallas developer pleaded guilty Tuesday to bribing two former Dallas City Council members, federal officials announced.
Sherman Roberts, 70, one of three developers charged in the high-profile case, previously led the City Wide Community Development Corporation, was indicted in December 2020 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery Tuesday, officials confirmed.
Roberts bribed former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and City Council member Carolyn Davis to support loans and low-income housing tax credits for his apartment projects, according to court documents.
Davis lobbied for Roberts’ projects, including Serenity Place, Runyon Springs and Patriot’s Crossing, in exchange for several thousand dollars in cash and the promise of continued payments after her term on the city council ended, officials say.
Davis promoted Serenity Place to the City Housing Committee, asked that other developers also seeking real estate funding withdraw their applications, recommended Serenity Place receive a 9% low income housing tax credit, and voted to approve a $1.9 million city of Dallas loan, feds say.
Davis reached out to ask for more money about a month after the vote and Roberts agreed, officials say.
At one point, Roberts and Davis met with Caraway about an issue with the Patriot’s Crossing Project, according to officials.
In return for several hundred dollars cash and a $2,000 monthly stipend, officials say Caraway agreed to stop the city from issuing a request for proposal for the Patriots Crossing project and to deliver the project.
Roberts faces up to five years in federal prison and is set to be sentenced March 12, 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Caraway pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and tax evasion and was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison. Davis also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery concerning an agent of a local government receiving federal benefits, but passed away in a car crash before she could be sentenced.
Devin Hall the developer behind the Grand Park Place apartment project, pleaded guilty in connection with the case in August 2020. Ruel Hamilton, the AmeriSouth Realty Group executive who backed the Royal Crest housing project, is awaiting retrial on conspiracy and bribery charges after a court ruled he could be retried in connection with the case.
Hamilton was previously convicted in 2021, his sentence was vacated in 2022 and the U.S. District Court for the Fifth Circuit ruled 9-7 in February of 2023 that they wouldn’t rehear the case, but didn’t bar Hamilton from being tried again.
