Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams Acquitted in Federal Tax Fraud Trial

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams was acquitted of all 10 counts of conspiracy and tax fraud Thursday (July 28), in a dramatic finish to his nine-day trial.

Williams’ law partner Nicole Burdett also was found not guilty on the same 10 counts from a June 2020 indictment, when the jury of nine women and three men returned its verdicts after more than 15 hours of deliberations. The verdict was delivered at 1:55 p.m. in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lance M. Africk.

But Burdett was convicted of four counts — separately indicted in December 2020 — which charged that she falsified her own personal tax returns with more than $280,000 in inflated business expenses for the tax years 2014-17. Those felony convictions will cost Burdett her law license and expose her to a possible federal prison term when she is sentenced by Africk on Nov. 30.

Read the source article at New Orleans News, Weather, Saints