Former Dayton city commissioner sentenced to prison

DAYTON – A former Dayton City Commissioner was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 12 months in prison for accepting a thing of value in connection with a local government.

Joey D. Williams pleaded guilty to the crime in September 2019. As part of his sentence, Williams was also ordered to pay $28,000 in restitution.

Williams served as an elected commissioner of the City of Dayton from 2001 until 2018. In 2015, Williams accepted a construction project at his personal home by an individual for a greatly reduced price in exchange for influencing the awarding of city contracts to that same individual.

The individual’s business was subsequently awarded at least $150,000 in contracts with both the City of Dayton and CityWide Development Corporation, a non-profit organization that functioned as a development and financing arm of the City of Dayton. CityWide routinely awarded thousands of dollars in contracts to private companies for the demolition of homes in Dayton.

Williams accepted more than $35,000 in free benefits from the individual, including cash payments and the construction of a patio at his home.

In an attempt to conceal the fraud, Williams demanded the individual create a fake invoice, falsely reflecting that Williams had personally paid the individual for the home improvement project.

Others charged include RoShawn Winburn, Clayton Luckie, Brian Higgins, Steve Rauch, Joyce Cameron and James Cameron. Luckie was sentenced in November 2019 to four months in prison for mail fraud.

David M. DeVillers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Chris Hoffman, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber announced the sentence imposed by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Thomas M. Rose. Assistant United States Attorneys Brent G. Tabacchi and Dominick S. Gerace are representing the United States in this case.

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