FORT PIERCE \u2013 The criminal trial of former Fort Pierce City Manager Nicholas Mimms begins Monday, in what is expected to be a week-long proceeding where twelve jurors will decide if Mimms is guilty of official misconduct and bid rigging,<\/p>\n
More than 20 witnesses are expected to be called to testify in the case, including a number of past and present city officials and employees, people tied to a $500,000 grant that was awarded to Lincoln Park Young Professionals (LPYP) and law enforcement investigators.<\/p>\n
The charges stem from the 2020 awarding of a low-fee, long-term lease for vacant, city-owned parcels at 1134 and 1138 Avenue D to LPYP.<\/p>\n
That non-profit \u2013 then headed by two city employees, one of whom is Mimms\u2019 niece \u2013 had proposed using shipping containers for an Avenue D neighborhood library, kitchen, classrooms and business incubator space designed to stimulate the Lincoln Park neighborhood.<\/p>\n
LPYP said it would use a $500,000 grant from Allegany Franciscan Ministries (AFM), a Tampa Catholic charity, to develop the project, However, today the lots remain vacant and the grant money has not been publicly accounted for.<\/p>\n
Mimms was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in August 2024, and was put on leave by the city, then forced to resign. He is represented by Donny Murrell Jr., of West Palm Beach, and has entered a plea of not guilty.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s alleged that Mimms manipulated the bidding process to favor LPYP by providing that group proprietary information that was not made known to other bidders. And an AFM vice president presented LPYP\u2019s bid plan to city officials, allegedly to cover-up LPYP\u2019s leadership ties to the city.<\/p>\n
Witnesses are expected to include municipal employees who drafted the Avenue D bid process,; another developer who unsuccessfully bid; Upendo Shabazz, then AFM vice president, who oversaw millions in grants to improve Lincoln Park; Joseph Cooper, an excavator hand-picked for the LPYP project; and FDLE Special Agent Derek Brieske, who led the criminal investigation.<\/p>\n
Mario Wilcox, the original whistleblower who requested an investigation of the matter, is also a likely witness.<\/p>\n
The trial begins at 9 a.m. Monday with jury selection. 19th Circuit Court Judge Michael Linn will preside at the St. Lucie County Courthouse in Fort Pierce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 The criminal trial of former Fort Pierce City Manager Nicholas Mimms begins Monday, in what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-412134","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\/412134","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=412134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}