WASHINGTON – Sulaimon Brown, who accused Mayor Vincent Gray (D) and his administration of pay-to-play practices, refused to testify before the D.C Council April 7.
Brown left the government operations hearing led by Councilmember Mary Cheh, who called a five-minute recess.
The former special assistant in the Department of Health Care Finance and mayoral candidate was the key witness in a Council probe into possible hiring improprieties in the new administration.
“She’s the friend of a man who’s a crook,” Brown said in reference to Cheh and Gray.
Right after, Cheh spoke with the press and signed a subpoena to mandate Brown’s testimony.
The probe came when Brown, after he was fired from his $115,000 salary job, accused Gray and members of his campaign team of paying him to attack then-incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty in the 2010 mayoral primary. He also said he was promised a job for his efforts.
Thursday’s hearing was the second installment in the investigation led by Cheh. Witnesses included Linda Wharton-Boyd, who works in the executive office of the mayor, and Gerri Mason Hall, Gray’s recently fired chief of staff who was responsible for the administration’s hires.
