Monica Conyers said weighing plea deal

DETROIT, June 17 (UPI) -- Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers Wednesday was weighing a plea deal under which she would admit guilt to a federal bribery charge, sources said.

Unnamed persons familiar with the investigation told The Detroit News that prosecutors were awaiting Conyers' response to a chance to plead guilty to a bribery-related felony charge in return for expected leniency in sentencing.

The newspaper quoted the sources as saying prosecutors were expecting an answer from Conyers Tuesday, but that deadline passed with no word of a deal because Conyers, wife of U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., was holding out for a misdemeanor charge.

The sources told the News that prosecutors have been focusing on an alleged pattern of behavior, in which they contend Conyers demanded and accepted cash and other benefits connected with her City Council duties as well as in her former role as a trustee of the city's retirement fund.

A guilty plea Monday by Detroit businessman Rayford Jackson has put more pressure on Conyers, whom sources say is the "Council Member A" whom Jackson admitted bribing in connection with a $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract, the News said.