FORT PIERCE \u2013 More than a year after he was arrested on charges of official misconduct and bid-rigging a lease of city property involving two city employees, the criminal trial of former Fort Pierce city manager Nicholas Mimms has been pushed to Sept. 28.<\/p>\n
The case brought by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) had been scheduled to begin Sept. 14.<\/p>\n
But at a meeting with St. Lucie Circuit Judge Michael Linn Thursday, a court official said the trial date was changed because it appeared it would be \u201chard to organize all the witnesses\u201d if the expected week-long trial began Sept. 14.<\/p>\n
In another action Aug. 28, Judge Linn had denied a motion by Upendo Shabazz, a significant witness in the case, asking to modify her subpoena to appear to testify.<\/p>\n
Shabazz, through her attorney, Johnny L. McCray Jr., of Pompano Beach, told the court she would be in Europe on a pre-planned vacation from Sept. 11-26. She had been scheduled to testify when the trial was initially set to begin Sept. 14.<\/p>\n
Records show Shabazz had represented Lincoln Park Young Professionals (LPYP), a non-profit created by two city employees, one of whom was Mimms\u2019 niece, in presenting a proposal to the city for the $1 lease of two, vacant, Avenue D lots to create a Lincoln Park education and business development enterprise.<\/p>\n
Shabazz also was vice president of Allegany Franciscan Ministries (AFM), a Catholic charitable group that pumped millions of dollars into plans to improve the low-income Lincoln Park neighborhood. And she was integral to LPYP receiving more than $500,000 in AFM grant money to fund its Avenue D proposal.<\/p>\n
Records show AFM approved the half-million-dollar grant to LPYP more than a year before the city issued its 2020 Request for Proposals for leasing for the Avenue D property.<\/p>\n
Today, the two lots are still vacant and the grant money remains unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
Following the FDLE investigation, Shabazz was dismissed by AFM.<\/p>\n
So far, Shabazz is one of two potential witnesses, subpoenaed to testify at Mimms\u2019 felony trial, who will be represented by their own attorneys.<\/p>\n
Court records show West Palm Beach counsel Kevin R. Anderson has entered an appearance to represent Joseph Cooper, an excavation contractor who was hired by LPYP at the request of a project manager who had been recommended by Shabazz.<\/p>\n
The FDLE report says while some money was paid to Cooper\u2019s company, the site preparation was never completed.<\/p>\n
Neither Shabazz nor Cooper are currently facing any criminal charges and are only listed as witnesses in the case against Mimms.<\/p>\n
Mimms, 53, joined city staff in 1998, as a project engineer, and was named city manager in 2015.<\/p>\n
He was arrested in August, 2024, placed on leave by the city and subsequently fired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 More than a year after he was arrested on charges of official misconduct and bid-rigging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-396577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}