FORT PIERCE – It appears that the case against former Fort Pierce city manager Nicholas Mimms is finally going to a jury trial in St. Lucie County 19th Circuit Court beginning Sept. 14.
Court records show at least two potential prosecution witnesses have been subpoenaed to testify for trial set to begin at 9 a.m. before Judge Michael C. Heisey.
State attorneys and Mimms’ counsel, Larry Donald Murrell Jr., of West Palm Beach, are scheduled to meet for a pretrial docket call Sept. 3 to finalize the plans.
Mimms was arrested in August 2024, on two felony charges: official misconduct and bid rigging, in connection with the 2020 awarding of a low-fee lease for vacant, city-owned parcels at 1134 and 1138 Avenue D to two city employees, one of whom is Mimms’ niece.
State investigators allege that Mimms manipulated the bidding process to favor the application of Lincoln Park Young Professionals by providing LPYP with proprietary information that other bidders did not have.
The non-profit proposed placing several storage containers on the site to house a library, kitchen, classrooms and business incubator space.
Allegany Franciscan Ministries, a Catholic charity out of Tampa, was among the major donors underwriting the project for more than $500,000 as part of its focus to stimulate Fort Pierce’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
The project was never built and the funds remain unaccounted for.
While no other arrests have been made in the case, Vennis Gilmore, a senior city planner and officer of LPYP, was reprimanded by the Florida Commission on Ethics and fined $1,000 for his role. He was demoted by the city and given a pay cut, but remains employed there.
Allegany reportedly fired a vice president and one of its subcontractors who investigators claimed helped hide LPYP’s city and family connections.
The former city manager was forced to resign after being charged and remains free on bond, awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
The defense had been unsuccessful in having the official misconduct charge dismissed. The court was not persuaded that Mimms would be forced to forgo his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination by defending himself against official misconduct charges.
The case has been continued multiple times at the requests of attorneys on both sides.
So far, court records show the prosecution has subpoenaed Audria Moore, special projects coordinator in the Fort Pierce city manager’s office who then had worked under Mimms, and Krysti Brotherton, Martin County’s chief procurement officer.
Additional witnesses are expected to be called by both sides.