Former Reed top aide made several recordings related to bribery investigation

ATLANTA — After a dramatic ending to a sentencing hearing on Monday, Channel 2 Action News has learned former Mayor Kasim Reed's top aide, Katrina Taylor Parks, made nearly a dozen recordings related to the bribery investigation at Atlanta City Hall.

As a judge read the sentence against Parks on Monday, she passed out and was taken out of court on a stretcher.

[TIMELINE: The Atlanta City Hall Investigation]

Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant learned of the recordings Tuesday, but experts say those recordings were not enough to keep Parks out of prison.

That’s why Georgia State University law school’s Jessica Cino believes federal prosecutors recommended that Parks spend 21 months in prison for taking bribes despite her cooperation in the fed’s sweeping corruption probe into City Hall under Reed.

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“It certainly seems that she gave them some amount of information, but they were looking for more,” Cino said. “Had she provided the "smoking gun," there would have probably been home confinement or probation.”

On Monday, Diamant was there when paramedics rushed Parks into an ambulance after she collapsed as a judge handed down that 21-month sentence.

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“This is really just a blip in the radar. It’s going to delay the actual sentencing, it’s not going to affect the ultimate sentence,” Cino said.

In August, Parks pleaded guilty to taking bribes from a city vendor in exchange for city work.

In court, prosecutors revealed Parks took $15,000 in cash and gifts over an 18-month period starting in 2013 and lied to the FBI about it at least twice.

Prosecutors disclosed Parks met with the feds 20 times and turned over 11 audio recordings she made but wouldn’t say with whom.

“Yeah, it’s going to make people nervous, because they don’t know who she recorded, when she recorded, and what was said,” Cino said.

Parks’ attorney, Jay Strongwater, confirmed she gave the feds details about the city’s contracting process, how it could be circumvented, and when things weren’t done by the book.

“They want who did it, when did they do it, and what was the illegal act. They want absolute, verifiable information like that, and so that will absolutely change the sentence,” Cino said.

Diamant confirmed Parks is out of the hospital.

Since she collapsed in court, her sentencing is incomplete. So far, the court has not issued a new sentencing date.

Cox Media Group