Multifamily Developer to Be Sentenced in Former City Council Bribery Case

From Staff Reports

A multifamily real estate developer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to bribing two former Dallas City Council members in exchange for support on loans and tax credits for affordable housing projects, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced this week.

Sherman Roberts, 70, the former leader of City Wide Community Development Corporation, paid thousands of dollars to former Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and council member Carolyn Davis in 2014, Fox 4 reported earlier this week. The former developer faces up to five years in federal prison and is set for sentencing on March 12.

Documents show the developer paid several thousand dollars in cash and promised future payments to Davis, the four-term city council member, for real estate projects in or near her southern Dallas district, including Serenity Place, Runyon Springs, and Patriot’s Crossing, according to the news report.

Note, Patriot’s Crossing was a tax-incentivized multi-family development near the VA hospital in south Dallas that never got built. The Dallas Observer has a good backgrounder on that convoluted case. Roberts and his City Wide Community Development Corporation spearheaded the $4.4 million project.

The news station reported that Davis promoted Serenity Place to the Council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, told other developers to pull their applications, recommended a favorable 9% low-income housing tax credit, and voted to approve a $1.9 million loan from the City of Dallas. Caraway was paid several hundred dollars in cash and a monthly stipend to stop the city from seeking other bids for the project and deliver it to Roberts, according to reports.

Councilwoman Davis pleaded guilty in 2019 to taking bribes from another developer, AmeriSouth Realty, but died in a car accident, where the driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel, four months later before she could be sentenced, Fox 4 reported. Caraway pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and tax evasion in 2019. He was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison. That sentence was later reduced, and he was released from prison in March 2022, according to reports.

Roberts was one of three real estate developers charged in the scandal. Grand Park Place developer Devin Hall pleaded guilty in August 2020. Royal Crest developer Ruel Hamilton, connected to AmeriSouth Realty, is awaiting a retrial on conspiracy and bribery charges.