Alabama: Vote Buying Re-Trial Begins

Alabama lobbyist Jennifer Pouncy testifies bribes offered for votes
By Kim Chandler -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News

MONTGOMERY -- A casino lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy testified Friday that she offered bribes to two former state senators to get their votes on a gambling bill.

Jennifer Pouncy, who lobbied for Country Crossing casino, said she offered bribes to state Sens. Larry Means and Jim Preuitt "in exchange for votes" in 2010.

She was the first major witness to take the stand in the State House vote-buying case. She was on the stand for only a short time Friday and has not yet described her conversations with Preuitt and Means. She returns to the witness stand Monday.

Pouncy pleaded guilty to conspiracy in September 2010 and said she is testifying in the hopes of getting a lighter prison sentence.

"I'm just here to tell the truth," Pouncy testified.

VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, Means, Preuitt and three others are on trial on charges of offering or accepting bribes -- largely in the form of campaign contributions -- to help pass gambling legislation in 2010. The bill was aimed at shielding electronic bingo casinos from state efforts to shut them down. It would have held a statewide referendum on gambling and, if approved, written into the Alabama Constitution that the electronic machines were legal.

Pouncy worked for lobbyist Jarrod Massey, whose clients included Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley.

Defense lawyers for Means and Preuitt have disputed Pouncy's account and said in opening statements that the senators voted for the bill because it had changed radically from the version originally introduced.

Prosecutor Edward T. Kang played a tape of a March 2, 2010, call between Pouncy and Massey in which Massey said that Gilley needed a cell phone number for Preuitt, who owns a car dealership.

"I think we got a million dollar vehicle need," Massey said to Pouncy.

Former Legislative Reference Service Assistant Director Monty Feld also took the witness stand Friday. Feld supervised and worked with Ray Crosby at the LRS. Crosby was set to stand trial in the case but died last month.

Feld testified that Crosby never mentioned to him or formally disclosed he was being paid $3,000 a month by McGregor, for a total of about $70,000. Feld said he would have been concerned because the payments came at a time when Crosby was heavily involved in writing gambling bills.

"It would trouble me as to the appearance of impropriety," Feld testified.

Prosecutors have accused McGregor of bribing Crosby to look out for his interests when he wrote legislation. But under cross-examination by McGregor's lawyer, Feld acknowledged he had never seen Crosby do anything he considered improper when he was working on gambling legislation.

McGregor lawyer Bobby Segall asked Feld whether he saw anything wrong in transcripts of wiretapped calls between McGregor and Crosby as they worked on details of legislation. Feld said he didn't.

McGregor's defense said in opening statements that Crosby was being paid for election and political strategy consulting work.

"It was clear in Mr. Feld's testimony that Mr. Crosby did not do anything in terms of that bill to aid us," McGregor lawyer Joe Espy said after court.


First Witness Called in Gambling Corruption Retrial
By CBS 8 News
The first witness in Alabama's gambling corruption trial says a deceased defendant never mentioned that he was getting $3,000 a month from an indicted casino owner.

Montgomery "Monty" Feld supervised Ray Crosby before retiring as assistant director of the Legislative Reference Service. Crosby was found dead from natural causes in his Montgomery home on Jan. 29.

Feld testified Friday that Crosby never mentioned he was getting paid by indicted casino owner Milton McGregor. Feld said the payments trouble him when he found out because Crosby wrote gambling legislation for the Legislature.

He also testified that he wasn't aware of Crosby doing anything out of the ordinary for McGregor.

The 14 charges against McGregor include one accusing him of paying bribes to Crosby for helping him with pro-gambling legislation.