Gilley: politicians were "out for personal gain and to accommodate special interests."

Alabama casino owner pleads guilty to vote buying
By PHILLIP RAWLS

MONTGOMERY, Ala.

Country Crossing casino developer Ronnie Gilley became the third person to plead guilty in Alabama's gambling corruption probe and admitted Friday that he worked with another indicted casino owner to offer millions to legislators to pass pro-gambling legislation.


Gilley's lobbyists, Jarrod Massey and Jennifer Pouncy, pleaded guilty earlier to offering millions in bribes for their client. Despite their pleas, Gilley had persisted in proclaiming his innocence until the judge recently refused to toss out information obtained through FBI wiretaps on the phones of Gilley and indicted VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor, who had a financial interest in Country Crossing.

The two casino owners tried to get the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment last spring that would allow the games to resume, but the bill died in April 2010 when the FBI revealed it was investigating allegations of corruption. Gilley and McGregor were arrested in October along with four present and former legislators and several casino lobbyists.

In his signed plea, Gilley admitted, "The defendant and McGregor, and the lobbyists and other individuals working for them, gave, offered and agreed to give money and other things of value worth millions of dollars to members of the Alabama Legislature in return" for voting for the gambling legislation.

He pleaded to half of the 22 counts against him: one of conspiracy, six of bribery involving public officials and four of money laundering by using political action committees and other contributors to hide the payment of money.

Gilley admitted his illegal acts involved the four present and former legislators charged in the case.

Gilley told the judge that he was naive about politics when he started making plans for Country Crossing.

But he said he soon found politicians were "out for personal gain and to accommodate special interests."

Gilley said he persisted in developing Country Crossing and got caught up in corruption despite his best intentions.

"The closer I got to the flames, it seems I became engulfed by the fire instead of putting it out," he said.