Ala. casino owner's credibility attacked in trial

Ala. casino owner's credibility attacked in trial
By PHILLIP RAWLS

MONTGOMERY, Ala. --

A casino owner who pleaded guilty in Alabama's gambling corruption investigation had to apologize for some of his words Tuesday after defense attorneys began attacking his credibility, getting him to admit he was deeply in debt and lacked the cash to pay millions in bribes he confessed to offering legislators.

After three days of testifying for the prosecution, Country Crossing casino developer Ronnie Gilley started answering questions from defense lawyers.

Walter McGowan, an attorney for indicted casino owner Milton McGregor, played a tape the FBI made of a phone conversation between Gilley and his lead lobbyist, Jarrod Massey. In the call, Massey said he would pay a $50,000 bonus to another of his lobbyists, Jennifer Pouncy, if she would perform a sex act with one of the defendants, former Republican state Sen. Jim Preuitt of Talladega, and videotape it.

After hearing the taped call, Gilley said nothing occurred and apologized to Preuitt and his wife. "It was a very distasteful joke," he told the jury.

"I have no excuse for the comment," he said. But then under further questioning by McGowan, he offered an excuse.

"Ms. Pouncy has engaged in conversations like that before with individuals in a joking way," he said.

Gilley said that when the call was made on March 22, 2010, he needed Preuitt's vote on pro-gambling legislation.

Preuitt, McGregor and seven others are on trial in federal court on charges of buying and selling votes on pro-gambling legislation. The legislation, a proposed constitutional amendment designed to protect electronic bingo casinos from raids, was passed by the Senate on March 30, 2010, but died in the House after the FBI revealed its investigation into Statehouse corruption.

Gilley, Massey and Pouncy have pleaded guilty to offering millions in bribes to legislators to pass the legislation. The two lobbyists are scheduled to testify later in the trial, which is in its fourth week.

He admitted under questioning that he offered Massey a 1 percent financial interest in the Country Crossing casino in Dothan last year if he would not cooperate with government prosecutors, but Massey pleaded guilty in December.

In Gilley's testimony for the prosecution, he said he worked with McGregor to pass the pro-gambling legislation and offered to hold campaign fundraisers with country music singers for legislators who supported the bill. He hyped the concerts as being worth $500,000 each in campaign contributions.

Under questioning by defense lawyers, Gilley admitted that in March 2010, when the Senate was considering the bill, his real estate and entertainment businesses had $160 million in debts. He also acknowledged that his BamaJam outdoor music festival in Enterprise, which attracted top acts like Brooks & Dunn, Taylor Swift and Kid Rock, was never financially successful, and he was broke because his casino had been forced to closed by the governor's gambling task force in early 2010.

Under questioning by other lawyers, Gilley acknowledged that he was $50,000 behind in paying country singer George Jones last year. Gilley said Jones was paid monthly to be a spokesman for Country Crossing, but he was never an investor in Country Crossing, even though his name was on the Possum Holler bed and breakfast at the Dothan attraction.

The defense played a taped call between Gilley and Massey, the lobbyist, in which they discussed using Jones to try to get Preuitt's vote for the pro-gambling bill. In the call, Gilley told Massey to tell Preuitt that Gilley would bring Jones by his Talladega car dealership to buy some trucks. But Gilley admitted under questioning he never took Jones to the dealership and never bought any vehicles from Preuitt.

While the jury was out of the courtroom, the defense lawyer for Country Crossing spokesman Jay Walker, Susan James, called Gilley "a con man" and said her goal was "attacking his veracity" in front of the jury.

McGregor's attorneys tried to show Tuesday that Gilley wasn't working closely with the owner of the closed VictoryLand casino in Shorter.

Under questioning, Gilley admitted that even though McGregor gave him $5 million to promote the gambling legislation, he used it toward construction expenses at Country Crossing.

"It was gone," he told the jury.

He also acknowledged that in one tape-recorded phone call in March 2010, he was trying to get Rick Carter, owner of the Island View Casino in Gulfport, Miss., to invest in Country Crossing, and he told Carter that he and McGregor had differences over strategy on the pro-gambling legislation.

Gilley told Carter that he had told McGregor, "'I promise you this, Milton, we are going to do this with or without you.'"

Gilley tried to defend himself against defense lawyers' criticism by portraying himself as a victim of Montgomery politics.

"I did not instigate any of this and it's continuing to take place today," said Gilley, who will return to the witness stand Wednesday.