Washington, DC – Former D.C. Mayor’s aide sentenced to 6 months in jail

A former aide to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday. The aide, Vernon Hawkins, was convicted of being involved in a “shadow campaign” in 2010 that helped get Gray elected. Hawkins, 77, admitted he took part in paying a witness to leave the District and in the spending and arranging of illicit campaign funds. He said, “It was wrong and I should not have had anything to do with it.” Hawkins is now the second person to receive jail time while working on Gray’s campaign, and prosecutors requested he serve a 1-year sentence claiming Hawkins continued to obstruct the investigation. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, however, ruled there was not sufficient evidence to prove Hawkins intentionally misled prosecutors.