Alabama: Prosecutor plays 'aborigine' tape

Gambling corruption trial: Prosecutor plays 'aborigine' tape
Written by Sebastian Kitchen

Controversial state Sen. Scott Beason, in a recording played in a federal corruption case Friday, referred to supporters of a casino in a predominantly black county as "aborigines" and talked about voting for a black woman as House speaker because her appointment would make it difficult for Democrats to raise money.

Also on Friday in the high-profile political case, former Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley described being tens of millions in debt, bringing down alleged coconspirators, and bribing his lobbyist not to cooperate with federal authorities.

Prosecutors, just days after objecting to having secretly recorded conversations of GOP lawmakers discussing race and gambling issues played in court, played what one prosecutor had referred to as "explosive, explosive" tapes.

In one conversation with then-state Rep. Ben Lewis, a Dothan Republican who is now a judge, Lewis refers to those in Greene County as "y'all's Indians."

"They're aborigines, but they're not Indians," said Beason, a Gardendale Republican who is running for Congress.

In the first corruption trial of VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor and others charged with conspiracy and other crimes, the defense challenged Beason's credibility using those comments and others he made in discussions with fellow Republicans.

The prosecutor also played a conversation in which Beason said he tried to talk fellow Republicans, when he was in the House of Representatives, into voting for black Democratic Rep. Yvonne Kennedy of Mobile as House speaker. Beason explained it as a strategy that would have made it difficult, if Kennedy was elected speaker, for Democrats to organize and raise money.

"Strategically, that is what we should have done," Beason said. "They wouldn't do it."

Beason recorded the conversations with a recording device he used as he cooperated with the FBI in the corruption investigation.

Lead federal prosecutor Kendall Day played the recordings with Gilley on the witness stand. Gilley, McGregor and Gilley lobbyist Jarrod Massey met with Beason in 2010, in a meeting the senator recorded, to discuss his support of the gambling legislation.

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Gilley, who has already pleaded guilty in the case, said they were willing to offer Beason $500,000 in exchange for his vote.

Gilley referred to Beason as a "6-foot 4, 250-pound gutless wonder," and said he never liked him, but would have probably still offered Beason the bribe in exchange for his vote if he was the key vote in favor of the gambling legislation in 2010.

"Unfortunately, our greed would have led us to purchase his vote," Gilley said.

Gilley and McGregor were pushing legislation in 2010 to try to ensure their casinos could stay open as state authorities cracked down on electronic gambling. McGregor and five other defendants in this case are accused of bribing lawmakers with cash and campaign contributions in exchange for their vote on gambling legislation.

Bringing McGregor down

Gilley, when asked by McGregor attorney Walter McGowan, told his wife he had to bring "Milton McGregor down" to get a reduced sentence. Gilley made the comment to her while in the Montgomery city jail, where his conversations were recorded.

Gilley also told his wife that the government told him what to say when he addressed the court after changing his plea to guilty in April 2011. He told her that he met with the government for an hour and a half and they gave him a script of what to say.

McGowan accused Gilley of saying what he needed, even if he did not agree with it, to please the government.

Upside down

Gilley said he was "upside down" about $115 million or $116 million.

"I'm broke," he said.

Gilley and his companies, as far back as 2008, had millions in debts and received millions in loans, including

$33 million from a group of athletes;
$4 million from boxer Floyd Mayweather;
more than $13 million from McGregor;
$21 million from a Georgia optometrist and his son;
$21 million from Lord Abbett and Co.;
and $17.6 million from gambling machines manufacturers IGT and Multimedia.
Gilley also owed $19 million for land he purchased from an attorney.

Gilley said he loaned the project about $15 million of his money and put about $46 million from his other companies into the project.

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Gilley said he, his companies and the Country Crossing project are about $185 million in debt.

Interested party

Gilley said, after the FBI approached Massey following a vote in the Senate on the gambling legislation, that Massey drove to his Enterprise office, where he said he offered him 1 percent interest in Country Crossing to keep him from cooperating with the investigation.

Gilley also admitted to later bribing Massey at the federal courthouse.

Other bribes

Gilley, when being questioned by McGowan, admitted he bribed former state Rep. Terry Spicer, D-Elba, and Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro. He said he gave Spicer a cellphone box with $20,000 in it.

"He never complained," Gilley said of Spicer receiving $20,000 in cash after requesting $50,000. He said Massey had told him Spicer wanted cash -- not a campaign contribution.

Spicer pleaded guilty for corruption unrelated to the heart of this trial, but the trial did reveal years of bribes from Gilley and Massey to Spicer. Massey said he gave, and Spicer admitted taking, monthly payments, a ski trip, tickets to entertainment events, and help paying for a boat.

"I had no earthly idea that Jarrod Massey was doing any of that at the time," Gilley said of the longtime bribes to Spicer.

McGowan pointed that out after Gilley said repeatedly on the witness stand that he kept McGregor abreast of all of his bribes.

Gilley has testified to having money wired to a lobbyist in 2008 with it intended to get to Singleton in hopes that he would kill legislation by Sen. Harri Anne Smith that Gilley said would kill his project. Smith, an independent senator from Slocomb, is a defendant in the case.

Singleton has denied any wrongdoing.