Alabama Vote Buying Trial Reveals More

Casino owner cited in complaint against Ala. judge
By PHILLIP RAWLS

A casino owner accused of buying votes in Alabama for pro-gambling legislation is cited in a judicial complaint against a former state judge, who's accused of letting a gambling lobbyist bankroll her re-election campaign while she was handling a custody dispute involving the casino owner's grandchildren.

An attorney for VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor said Tuesday that he did nothing wrong and the complaint filed against former District Judge Patricia Warner of Montgomery is based on errors.

"It's reckless and somebody is going to have to answer for that," defense attorney Joe Espy said Tuesday outside the federal courthouse.

The 72-year-old McGregor is in the third week of a trial where he and eight others are accused of buying and selling legislators' votes for pro-gambling legislation with campaign contributions. The legislation was designed to keep McGregor's now-closed VictoryLand casino in Shorter operating.

Late Monday afternoon, the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a complaint against Warner, a Democrat who resigned unexpectedly last week less than six months into her second term. The 74-count complaint accuses Warner of judicial misconduct in several cases, including the one involving an effort by McGregor's former son-in-law to regain visitation rights with McGregor's grandchildren.

The complaint will be heard by the Alabama Court of Judiciary, which can sanction her if it finds her guilty of misconduct and impose financial penalties. A spokesman for the state pension system said Warner qualifies for state retirement benefits. The amount was not immediately available.

The complaint contends that McGregor contributed at least $286,000 to eight political action committees controlled by lobbyist Johnny Crawford and then Crawford's PACs gave $20,750 to Warner. That's out of $75,455 the Democratic judge reported raising from all sources for her campaign.

The complaint said Warner should have stepped down after McGregor's son-in-law questioned her impartiality because of the PAC donations from Crawford, "a known lobbyist for Mr. McGregor and the gambling industry and the father of Laurel Crawford, Judge Warner's staff attorney."

The complaint said McGregor's ex-son-in-law, Todd Brown, was unable to visit his children for nearly two years because the judge suspended his visitation rights and acted "in bad faith" on his request for her to step aside.

Espy said Tuesday the complaint is in error because Crawford has never been a lobbyist for McGregor.

Annual lobbying statements filed by Crawford with the State Ethics Commission don't list McGregor as a client, but his client list does include International Game Technology, which supplied games for McGregor's electronic bingo casino and the Country Crossing casino of Ronnie Gilley.

Gilley has pleaded guilty in the Statehouse corruption case and agreed to testify for the prosecution.

Crawford said Warner has been a family friend for many years, and he raised money for her campaign, including hosting a fundraiser reception at his house. But he said only $500 came from one of his political action committees where McGregor had contributed. He said the other PACs he used to support her campaign had no money from McGregor.

In the federal court trial involving McGregor, Republican state Rep. Barry Mask of Wetumpka wrapped up two days of testimony Tuesday and explained how he worked with the FBI to record phone calls to McGregor. Mask said McGregor promised him significant campaign contributions if he would support pro-gambling legislation and that McGregor said he would get the contributions to come from friends so that they could not be traced back to McGregor.

Debbie Moore, who organized a fundraiser for Mask, said a representative of McGregor's gambling business wanted to buy all 100 of the $50 tickets to the fundraiser. When she told him none were available, he said they would attend anyway. She said two men showed up at the event on Feb. 15, 2010, with donations totaling $5,000 -- the exact price of all the tickets. The two men were lobbyists for McGregor, and one of them, Bob Geddie, is on trial with the casino owner.

In an interview Tuesday, Crawford said there was no switching around of contributions to his PACs to hide the origin of the money donated to Warner.

"Absolutely not," he said.

Crawford also said he never discussed the child custody dispute with his daughter.

In the complaint against Warner, the Judicial Inquiry Commission said only two of her 29 rulings that got appealed to higher courts were upheld, and she disregarded the legal standards that the higher courts told her that she should follow.

Warner's attorney, Charles Dauphin, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Dauphin is with former Attorney General Bill Baxley's law firm, which is representing one of McGregor's lobbyists, Tom Coker, in the federal court trial.