United States v. Jordan
| Docket Number | Civil Action 4:18-CR-00087 |
| Decision Date | 03 August 2022 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. LAURA JORDAN (1) a/k/a Laura Maczka MARK JORDAN (2) |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas |
Pending before the Court are the Government's Motion for Findings and Conclusions Regarding Disclosure of Recorded Calls (Dkt #335); Defendants' Post-Verdict Motion to Dismiss, or in the Alternative, for Judgment of Acquittal or for New Trial (Dkt. #347); Defendants' Post-Verdict Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative, for Judgment of Acquittal or for New Trial (Dkt. #348); Defendants' Post-Verdict Motion to Dismiss, or in the Alternative, for Judgment of Acquittal or for New Trial (Dkt. #352); and Defendants' Motion to Stay this Court's Ruling on Their Rule 33 Motion for a New Trial and to Postpone Sentencing Hearing (Dkt. #389). After consideration of the parties' arguments and of the evidence, the Court finds each of the motions should be DENIED.
Defendant Laura Jordan, previously Laura Maczka (“Laura”) served as Mayor of the City of Richardson, Texas (“Richardson” or the “City”) from May 2013 to April 2015. Laura was married to Michael Maczka (“Michael”), but the two separated in October 2014 and divorced on January 8, 2015. Defendant Mark Jordan (“Mark”) is a commercial real estate developer and owner of Sooner National Property Management (“Sooner”) and Sooner Management, among other entities. Through Sooner, Mark owns a portion of the Palisades Property in Richardson (the “Palisades”). Mark was married to Karen Jordan (“Karen”) until the two separated in August 2014 and divorced in August 2016. During his marriage to Karen, Mark had an affair with at least two women. One of these women was Sarah Catherine Norris (“Sarah”) who formerly worked as Mark's business partner and held a 50% partnership interest in Sooner Management. The other woman was Laura, the former Mayor of Richardson. After a federal investigation developed against Laura and Mark for activities detailed below, Laura and Mark married each other.
Laura platformed part of her mayoral campaign on a stance against zoning for or building new apartments near neighborhoods. Laura and her friends went door-to-door on the campaign trail and consistently confirmed Laura's negative stance on apartments as well as her particular aversion to development of the Palisades, which sits adjacent to the Canyon Creek and Prairie Creek neighborhoods (Tr. 482-92; 1230-32). One of Laura's closest friends testified that the neighborhood “worked very hard to get [Laura] elected” with the understanding that “she was not going to allow that development [sic] go in near the neighborhood” (Tr. 1279). As owner of the Palisades, Mark had hopes of developing apartment complexes on the property, which, in turn, would increase apartment complex presence near the Canyon Creek and Prairie Creek neighborhoods (Tr. 488). But the property was not zoned for apartments (Tr. 1392). On November 5, 2013, Mark formally requested that the City Plan Commission rezone the Palisades so he could realize this goal (Dkt. #233 at p. 8).
Laura's role as mayor required her to vote with the Richardson City Council (the “City Council”) on whether to approve zoning projects, among other matters. On December 9, 2013, Laura and the City Council convened to vote on the zoning changes proposed by Mark. Hundreds of community members, specifically those residing in Canyon Creek and Prairie Creek, had expressed serious disapproval of Mark's proposal to rezone the Palisades (Tr. 364). In their view, a decision to rezone would directly contradict Laura's campaign platform (Tr. 361-64). Despite the public outcry and Laura's campaign promises, the City Council-and specifically Laura- voted in favor of the rezoning, thereby allowing Mark to begin the Palisades development (Tr. 365).
On January 27, 2014, Laura and the City Council voted once again to rezone the Palisades for apartment development. Then on June 9, 2014, Laura and the City Council voted to increase the number of apartments that Mark could develop on the Palisades from 600 to 1,090. Finally, on September 22, 2014, Laura and the City Council voted to allow the City Manager to negotiate with Mark on terms for a reimbursement deal. The final terms of the deal indicated that Mark would improve segments of the Palisades in exchange for a $47 million reimbursement from the City.
Behind these political scenes, Laura and Mark had begun an affair. Prior to the rezoning votes, Mark and Laura had privately emailed about the Palisades. Laura sent many of these emails from her personal account. On multiple occasions, Laura forwarded directly to Mark emails from Prairie Creek and Canyon Creek residents regarding the upcoming vote to rezone. Evidence of an intimate and personal relationship between Laura and Mark first arose in an email from November 11, 2013. In this email, Laura forwarded a constituent's questions to Mark regarding the Palisades. On November 14, 2013, Mark responded at 4:30am, directing Laura to That same day, Laura responded, (Tr. 897-1088).
On November 21, 2013, Laura sent an email to Mark, writing, (Tr. 897-971). Karen, Mark's ex-wife, found these emails and confronted Mark about whether he was having an affair with Laura, which Mark denied. According to Karen, Mark stated he was flirting with Laura only to get what he wanted. (Tr. 897-971).
The emails continued, and the content confirms that Mark and Laura were meeting in person. A private investigator hired by Sarah snapped photos of Laura and Mark together in public.[1] They were seen sitting closely at restaurants and meeting in parking lots (Tr. 447-60). It wasn't until early January 2014 that Mark confessed to Karen he had engaged in intimate conduct with Laura. This confession came only after Karen had tracked Mark's iPad to Laura's house at around two o'clock in the morning and then confronted him. According to Karen, during this confrontation, Mark admitted to kissing Laura, but insisted that he was not attracted to her (Tr. 897-932).
Despite Mark's apparent lack of attraction to Laura, the couple took many extravagant trips together-Mark footing much of the bill. Direct and circumstantial[2] evidence suggests that in 2014, Mark and Laura went to Salt Lake City, Austin, San Jose, Los Angeles, Laguna Bench, and Fort Walton. In 2015, direct and circumstantial evidence suggests Laura and Mark went to Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Colorado, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and Tampa. Evidence from these trips shows Mark often upgraded Laura's plane tickets to business class and spent thousands of dollars on hotel rooms at these locations. All the while, Laura concealed the true nature of these vacations from her friends, passing off her frequent travel as “mayor trips” and insisting she was not traveling with Mark (Tr. 1251).
The expenditures did not end at the trips. Evidence also shows that Mark bought furniture and funded a home renovation for Laura in October 2014. Mark told the home renovator that the project was for a friend but asked the renovator to keep news of the project “on the down-low” (Tr. 1098). Laura lied to friends, family, and her then-husband about the price tag, claiming her father was paying for the renovations. Though Mark had apparently told Karen he was no longer seeing Laura (Tr. 897-932), Mark continued funding this project, never even asking for a quote and instructing the renovator to do “whatever [Laura] wants done” (Tr. 1096-126). When Karen learned of the remodel, she confronted Mark, asking why he was funding a renovation of Laura's home (Tr. 897-932). Again, denying a continued relationship with Laura, Mark responded, (Tr. 897-932).[3]
On top of trips and home renovations, Laura also received a job offer from Sooner. She accepted the position and began in March 2015, replacing a leasing agent who left the company having reached the ceiling of his salary range at $70,000. Laura, who came with less experience and no real estate license, received a $15,000 signing bonus and a $150,000 salary. Not once did Laura ever disclose to any City Council member or the Richardson constituents that she had a personal relationship with Mark, the developer of the Palisades.
As mentioned, Laura was not the first woman with whom Mark carried on an affair. In 2013, Mark and his former business partner, Sarah, began seeing each other while she was in the process of divorcing her husband. Mark took Sarah on trips and bought her gifts. The relationship was, in Sarah's eyes, “very serious” but it ended nonetheless (Tr. 1621). Sarah described Mark in the aftermath of the relationship as “threatening” (Tr. 1625). Mark indicated to Sarah that the Sooner Management partnership would be at risk if Sarah divorced her husband. According to Sarah, Mark worked with an attorney to “write up an agreement to give [Sarah's] 50 percent partnership to ...
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