Alabama Gambling Corruption Trial

Week three includes sparks, surprises
Written by
Sebastian Kitchen

Three more key witnesses took the stand, including bra­zen and foul-mouthed Coun­try Crossing developer Ron­nie Gilley, in the third week of a federal corruption case alleging gambling interests worked together to bribe state legislators. Prosecutors also, for the first time, played conversations secret­ly taped by the FBI of tar­gets in their investigation, in­cluding Gilley.

VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor and eight other defendants are charged with trying to buy and sell sup­port for legislation that would have helped McGre­gor, Gilley and other casino operators in the state.

Gilley already has pleaded guilty in the case.

The following is a summa­ry of the action and testimo­ny in court during the week.



Monday

Lobbyists for McGregor delivered two $2,500 checks to state Rep. Barry Mask, R-Wetumpka, the same day that the casino owner said he would find significant help for the legislator if he sup­ported pro-gambling legisla­tion. Mask went to authori­ties after he was contacted by McGregor for the first time in about two years about the same time some­one from VictoryLand called trying to buy all of the tick­ets to a fundraiser.

In a conversation he re­corded with FBI agents in his office Feb. 15, 2010, Mask asked how much help he could expect and asked McGregor if he would have anyone attending the fund­raiser that night.

McGregor said in a re­corded conversation the next day that he sent lobbyists Bob Geddie and Ben Patter­son to the fundraiser in Tal­lassee. Geddie is a defendant in the case.

McGregor also told Mask that legislators who did not support people's right to vote on the legislation would have a political "price to pay" in the 2010 primaries and gen­eral election.

Mask said he opened a separate account with ASE Credit Union at the request of the FBI. He said the mon­ey is still there and he has never spent it.
McGregor attorney Joe Espy questioned Mask about receiving money from lobby­ist and former Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, who lobbied for the Poarch Band of Creek Indi­ans, and about Mask receiv­ing $10,000 to $50,000 a year for referring another client to Windom. Espy said that client, Computer Associates, does work for the state and that Mask as a legislator con­tinues to receive money for referring that company even though it continued to do work for the state. Mask said he was not doing any work for the money, but said re­ceiving the fee for referring someone was standard prac­tice in business and that he referred that company be­fore he was a legislator.

(Page 2 of 6)

Espy alleged that along with more than $50,000 in salary as a state representa­tive, Mask receives more than $97,000 running the El­more County Economic De­velopment Authority, which he helped found and which receives almost $300,000 a year in funding from Elmore County. He said Mask was a double dipper. Mask said the authority also receives pri­vate funding and is a 501(c)(3) (a tax-exempt non­profit organization).

Espy also said Mask was pushing a 4 percent lodging tax for Elmore County in the Legislature and that the pro­ceeds would go to the eco­nomic development authori­ty to pay salaries, including his own.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson did not allow de­fense attorneys to question Mask in front of the jury about the two government-funded checks or his support for the lodging tax because they were not relevant to the current case.

Espy asked Mask if during the course of 608 days, the time of the alleged conspira­cy, he had less than 40 min­utes of telephone calls and no face to face meetings with McGregor. Mask said, "I don't recall any face to face meetings."

Espy also questioned Mask about playing poker with his friends even though he has bashed gambling.

The prosecution filed a motion Monday to try to stop questioning from the defense on whether former state Rep. Benjamin Lewis' ap­pointment to a district judge­ship in Houston County was political.

Lewis, a government wit­ness who went to authorities and agreed to record conver­sations for the FBI, was ap­pointed by then-Gov. Bob Ri­ley. Defense attorneys questioned if Riley appointed Lewis to the judgeship be­cause of his willingness to cooperate in the corruption investigation.

Prosecutors have said Lewis was cooperating with the FBI 13 months before that judgeship became open.

Key Democrats pushed for Senate Republicans to ask state Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, to resign and to strip him of his chairman­ship of a powerful commit­tee after racially insensitive comments he made were re­vealed a week earlier in the case.

(Page 3 of 6)

Tuesday

Mask recorded phone con­versations for the FBI, but also said he was given a re­cording device he could put in his pocket and turn on. "I don't think I ever used the body recorder at all," Mask said. " ... I never encountered a conversation where I needed to turn it on."

Lewis Gillis, an attorney for defendant and state Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgom­ery, attempted to show Tues­day morning that Ross had no communication with Mask about gambling during this time, and that Ross sup­porting gambling and receiv­ing money even though he did not have an opponent were not illegal and not un­common in state politics.

Debbie Moore, who orga­nized the fundraiser for Mask, testified that someone from VictoryLand had called and tried to purchase all of the $50 tickets to the Mask fundraiser. She also testified that two men she did not rec­ognize came to the fund­raiser and brought two $2,500 checks. She said she would not be able to identify those men.

Cheryl Farrow, office manager and bookkeeper for Fine Geddie & Associates, testified that the ledger showing which of their cli­ents contributed to which candidates was changed to show that the two $2,500 checks did not come from McGregor, but two corpo­rate clients, Great Southern Wood and Protective Life Corp. She said on the stand that she would have written those checks to Mask at the request of Geddie, one of the owners of the Fine Geddie & Associates lobbying firm. Geddie is a lobbyist for McGregor. Farrow said the original entry was a mistake so she corrected it. Prosecut­ors questioned changing the ledger and who pushed for it to be changed. An attorney for Geddie pointed out that Farrow did not black out the changes in the ledger, but in­stead crossed them out where people could still read them.

Lewis, the former legisla­tor, took the stand for the first time Tuesday.

Wednesday

Lewis said he went to local law enforcement in his com­munity after he felt Gilley tried to bribe him at a dinner at Garrett's restaurant in Montgomery in March 2009. They connected him with the FBI, and he agreed to record conversations.

(Page 4 of 6)

Lewis said Gilley and his supporters let it be known that if Lewis supported their project they could double the support he received in his last campaign, where he spent more than $200,000.

The prosecution played ta­pes Lewis recorded of Gilley and state Sen. Harri Anne Smith of Slocomb, a defen­dant.

Beason, according to Lewis, had no reason to re­cord him, but recorded him by mistake. In the conversa­tion between them that Lewis said was recorded mistakenly, Lewis referred to Smith as "stupid," said he felt sorry for her, and said she had a "good argument" for why she changed her mind on gambling legisla­tion. Lewis said he meant that she made some stupid decisions. He said he consid­ered Smith a friend and that she was intelligent. Lewis be­came emotional when he was asked about the conversa­tion.

Lewis said FBI agents asked him to record Smith, Gilley, lobbyist Claire Austin, and then-state Rep. Terry Spicer, D-Elba.

Beason, who also recorded conversations for the FBI, testified that Smith told him following that dinner that Country Crossing supporters could help him with as much as $500,000 for a campaign for lieutenant governor if he supported the project. Lewis said Beason told him about that conversation. He said Beason told him that he was told House members who supported gambling legisla­tion would receive $200,000 to $250,000 for their cam­paigns with senators receiv­ing $500,000.
Smith has said that con­versation never happened.
Lewis said he recorded about 20 conversations.

Thursday

Gilley, in his first day on the stand, said he initiated a project in 2007 he called Little Nashville that he want­ed to locate close to Enter­prise in Coffee County. With his development projects, he used country music stars to help promote residential liv­ing to retirees. There were lenders and investors in place for the project, Gilley said. Then, he said, the real estate market collapsed.

Gilley said, at the encour­agement of someone in the lieutenant governor's office, they decided to look at ad­ding electronic bingo, which he said he did not know any­thing about, to the project. As they looked at it, Gilley said the electronic gambling and not the residential hous­ing would finance the proj­ect.


(Page 5 of 6)

Gilley said other states and other counties were pur­suing the project, including Lowndes, Houston and Rus­sell counties. They decided to locate the project, which they renamed Country Crossing, near Dothan in Houston County, which he said they did because there was a constitutional amend­ment already there allowing bingo.
Gilley said he did not meet with Smith prior to her back­ing off her legislation that he said would have killed his project. He said he did not ask her to change her posi­tion.

Legislative analyst Ray Crosby did not originally re­port the $3,000 he received each month from McGregor to the Alabama Ethics Com­mission, which has forms that public officials and em­ployees who make more than $50,000 must fill out with in­formation on their income, debt, property and invest­ments. Crosby did not in­clude the income on his 2008 and 2009 reports, but filed an addendum in August 2010 that added that income.

An accountant for McGre­gor, Lynn Byrd, testified that she wrote and McGregor signed 24 checks for $3,000 to Crosby. He received $3,000 each month from May 2008 through April 2010. Prosecutors argued that Crosby did not report that in­come until the investigation became public.

Lewis said he did not re­member Beason, his friend and roommate, using the term "aborigine" in a conver­sation Beason recorded of them and said he considered Beason a "person of integri­ty." In response to Lewis, Beason referred to support­ers of Greenetrack casino in west Alabama as "abori­gines."

Friday

Gilley said, after concerns from McGregor that Country Crossing would hurt his busi­ness by 22 percent, they reached an agreement in which McGregor provided millions in loans for the proj­ect and would receive a por­tion of the profit. Originally, McGregor was supposed to receive 14 percent, but that increased to 20 percent as McGregor contributed more.

Gilley talked about McGregor lending $5 mil­lion, $2.8 million and $500,000. The money was used for building, to push pro-gambling legislation, and to be able to pay employees at times.

(Page 6 of 6)

Gilley said he used some of that money to pay for a fundraiser for Smith's 2010 Senate re-election campaign. He spent $217,000 in in-kind services for the fundraiser in Enterprise, which featured entertainment by singers Lorrie Morgan and John An­derson.

Gilley also talked about giving Spicer, who was then a state legislator from Elba, a box of cash. Spicer had al­legedly asked for $50,000 or he would create a roadblock for the gambling legislation. Gilley said he gave him $20,000.

Smith called Gilley, in a conversation taped by the FBI, and asked for $400,000 for her 2010 Senate cam­paign. Gilley, according to testimony and wiretapped conversations, worked to get the money to her through po­litical action committees $200,000 at a time. Gilley said he and his supporters probably put $600,000 to­ward

Smith's re-election campaign.

Gilley said he, through his lobbyist Jarrod Massey, di­rected $40,000 to Smith for her 2008 race for Congress. He said she came by, thanked him and said, "what­ever you need, I'm yours." She had returned a previous check from Gilley over con­cerns about it coming direct­ly from him.

Gilley said that it was Lewis that tried to solicit that money from him at Gar­rett's and that he told people about it after the dinner.

Gilley said, while at Gar­rett's, that Smith asked if he and McGregor would be will­ing to contribute $500,000 to Beason's campaign. "I said absolutely," Gilley said.
Bill Baxley, an attorney for lobbyist Tom Coker, moved to dismiss a count of wire fraud in the indictment. Thompson said he will not dismiss a count in the middle of the prosecution's case, but said the sides should be ready to debate after the prosecution has presented its case.

Prosecutors indicated they were hesitant to call Massey, who also has pleaded guilty, to the stand, but decided they would.



For another perspective:

Aborigines – New Stars in an Old Show Aborigines – New Stars in an Old Show

The State Legislative circus moved under a new tent last week as Alabama’s gambling corruption trial took center ring in Myron Thompson’s federal court.

The trial relates to some 2010 shenanigans between gambling lobbyists and a few state legislators.