Attorneys attack prosecutor payments
Having casino company pay isn’t right, they claim in Daniel case filings
By BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer , Messenger News
Peninsula Gaming, the company picked to run a proposed Fort Dodge casino, and its top two executives appeared to be in legal trouble as 2010 drew to a close.
Special Prosecutor Lawrence Scalise filed criminal charges in October of that year against the Dubuque company; Brent Stevens, its chief executive officer; and Jonathan Swain, its chief operating officer; in connection with a contribution to the re-election campaign of former Gov. Chet Culver by Steve Daniel, a Fort Dodge man leading the effort to bring a casino to his town. Daniel, Webster County Entertainment and Davenport attorney Curtis Beason were also charged in the case.
The legal fortunes of Peninsula Gaming, Stevens and Swain have since improved. All charges against them have been dismissed, and the company is now paying for the ongoing prosecution of Daniel, Webster County Entertainment and Beason.
That arrangement is now the target of a fresh offensive by defense attorneys seeking to get the special prosecutors disqualified and the charges against the remaining defendants thrown out.
Daniel's attorney, Monty Fisher, of Fort Dodge, and Beason's attorneys, Leon Spies, of Iowa City, and Mark Weinhardt and William Ortman, of Des Moines, have filed motions in Polk County District Court claiming the payment arrangement violates ethics rules.
''Allowing the well heeled defendant, PGP (Peninsula Gaming), to escape prosecution by agreeing to pay for the prosecution of others violates not only the plain language of the ethical rules as argued by defendant Beason, but also clearly violates the spirit of the rules and the entire administration of a fair and impartial justice system,'' Fisher wrote in a motion filed Thursday.
The payment arrangement is outlined in a May 12, 2011, letter to Scalise from Guy Cook, the Des Moines attorney representing Peninsula Gaming. In the letter, Cook writes that the charges will be dismissed and adds ''finally, Peninsula Gaming will pay the costs of the prosecution of the charges previously brought through conclusion of this matter.''
On May 13, 2011, the prosecutors dropped the charges against Peninsula, Stevens and Swain.
Scalise's law firm, Coppola, McConville, Coppola, Hockenberg & Scalise, of West Des Moines, has been paid more than $100,000 so far for his work as a special prosecutor.
''The state of Iowa is not going to end up having one penny paid out to us that has not been reimbursed, so the taxpayers aren't footing the bill,'' Scalise said during a Nov. 17, 2011, hearing.
The charges against all the defendants in the case were filed on Oct. 11, 2010, following a probe by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Daniel and Webster County Entertainment are scheduled to go on trial in Des Moines beginning Jan. 23 on charges of making a campaign contribution in the name of another and willful failure to disclose a campaign contribution. Beason, who is charged with failure to disclose a campaign contribution and obstruction, is also scheduled to go on trial that day.
The trial may be delayed, depending on what Polk County Associate District Court Judge William Price does with the six motions filed by the defense attorneys. Each of those motions addresses a different aspect of the legality of the payment arrangement between Peninsula Gaming and the special prosecutors.
A call seeking comment from Scalise wasn't returned Friday. A staffer in his office said he was meeting with Attorney General Tom Miller about a different issue.
Scalise and fellow Special Prosecutor Richard McConville claim that Daniel funneled campaign cash to Culver on behalf of Peninsula Gaming when he made his donation in November 2009.
During a pre-trial hearing in November 2011, Scalise said that Beason was the ''director, architect and orchestrator of the entire program to disguise the true source of the dollars.''
Attorneys disagree on how much money was donated. Scalise and McConville have said the amount was $25,000. Fisher has said the total was $11,000 paid in increments of $4,500, $4,500 and $2,000.
The prosecutors say the donation was made shortly after Peninsula Gaming paid Webster County Entertainment, a group led by Daniel, a $25,000 consulting fee. According to Scalise, within days of the $25,000 being deposited in the Webster County Entertainment account, checks were written to Daniel, Jim Kesterson and Merrill Leffler Jr. Kesterson and Leffler are Fort Dodge men who were partners with Daniel in Webster County Entertainment.
Scalise said the three men promptly wrote checks to Culver's re-election campaign.
Kesterson and Leffler were never charged with any crimes.
The effort to create the Diamond Jo Fort Dodge casino ended in May 2010 when the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission declined to issue the needed license.
Showing posts with label Gov. Chet Culver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gov. Chet Culver. Show all posts
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Iowa: Casino-related probe attorney fees top $90,000
Casino-related probe attorney fees top $90,000
By ROD BOSHART, Globe Des Moines Bureau
DES MOINES — The cost of probing allegations of improper contributions to Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign from Fort Dodge casino interests has risen to more than $92,000.
The Iowa Executive Council has approved payments of nearly $92,421 to special prosecutor Lawrence Scalise, a West Des Moines lawyer and former Iowa attorney general, and another attorney, Richard McConville, to look into allegations that casino backers passed money through a third party to the Culver campaign. That according to Julie Pottorff, an Iowa deputy attorney general who handles invoices for outside counsel and payment of legal costs for the council.
The Iowa Executive Council — a five-member panel made up of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and secretary of agriculture — hired Scalise last year at a negotiated rate of $80 an hour as a special prosecutor to look into the allegations after Attorney General Tom Miller concluded his office had an appearance of a conflict of interest because Donn Stanley moved from being a division head there to managing the Culver-Judge re-election campaign.
The state Division of Criminal Investigation probed donations from the three Fort Dodge businessmen who reportedly gave $25,000 to the Culver campaign in fall 2009 after they had received $25,000 from Peninsula Gaming. The company and businessmen were partners in an effort to get a casino license in Fort Dodge.
In October 2010, Scalise filed charges in Polk County District Court against Peninsula Gaming Partners LLC, Webster County Entertainment LLC, Peninsula executives Martin Brent Stevens and Jonathan Swain, Webster executive Steve Daniel and Curtis Beason, a Davenport lawyer, alleging they violated the state’s campaign disclosure law.
Those charged were accused of donating money to Culver’s campaign in the name of another person, which is illegal in Iowa. All denied any wrongdoing and entered not guilty pleas.
Earlier this year, charges were dismissed against Stevens and Swain while Beason and Daniel are slated to stand trial Oct. 10 on misdemeanor charges.
Last July, officials with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board announced they had reached a settlement with Peninsula Gaming LLC over allegations that the company illegally made contributions in the name of another person and didn’t report them. In the settlement, Peninsula Gaming agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $4,000, which was the maximum penalty the board could impose in this case.
By ROD BOSHART, Globe Des Moines Bureau
DES MOINES — The cost of probing allegations of improper contributions to Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign from Fort Dodge casino interests has risen to more than $92,000.
The Iowa Executive Council has approved payments of nearly $92,421 to special prosecutor Lawrence Scalise, a West Des Moines lawyer and former Iowa attorney general, and another attorney, Richard McConville, to look into allegations that casino backers passed money through a third party to the Culver campaign. That according to Julie Pottorff, an Iowa deputy attorney general who handles invoices for outside counsel and payment of legal costs for the council.
The Iowa Executive Council — a five-member panel made up of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and secretary of agriculture — hired Scalise last year at a negotiated rate of $80 an hour as a special prosecutor to look into the allegations after Attorney General Tom Miller concluded his office had an appearance of a conflict of interest because Donn Stanley moved from being a division head there to managing the Culver-Judge re-election campaign.
The state Division of Criminal Investigation probed donations from the three Fort Dodge businessmen who reportedly gave $25,000 to the Culver campaign in fall 2009 after they had received $25,000 from Peninsula Gaming. The company and businessmen were partners in an effort to get a casino license in Fort Dodge.
In October 2010, Scalise filed charges in Polk County District Court against Peninsula Gaming Partners LLC, Webster County Entertainment LLC, Peninsula executives Martin Brent Stevens and Jonathan Swain, Webster executive Steve Daniel and Curtis Beason, a Davenport lawyer, alleging they violated the state’s campaign disclosure law.
Those charged were accused of donating money to Culver’s campaign in the name of another person, which is illegal in Iowa. All denied any wrongdoing and entered not guilty pleas.
Earlier this year, charges were dismissed against Stevens and Swain while Beason and Daniel are slated to stand trial Oct. 10 on misdemeanor charges.
Last July, officials with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board announced they had reached a settlement with Peninsula Gaming LLC over allegations that the company illegally made contributions in the name of another person and didn’t report them. In the settlement, Peninsula Gaming agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $4,000, which was the maximum penalty the board could impose in this case.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Iowa Corruption: Daniel casino trial reset for fall
Daniel casino trial reset for fall
Court date pushed back to October
By BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer , Messenger News
The trial of a Fort Dodge businessman charged with making an illegal campaign contribution to former Gov. Chet Culver has been postponed until the fall while a special prosecutor and defense attorneys spar via court filings.
This week, Polk County Associate District Court Judge William Price moved the starting date of Steve Daniel's trial to Oct. 10.
But the trial won't happen at all if Daniel's attorney, Monty Fisher, of Fort Dodge, succeeds in getting the charges of making a campaign contribution in the name of another and willful failure to disclose a campaign contribution dismissed.
Leon Spies, the attorney for co-defendant Curtis Beason, of Davenport, said he intends to file a motion to dismiss all charges against his client as well.
Price hasn't set a date for a hearing on those requests to dismiss charges.
He has set a June 28 hearing on requests to move the trial of Daniel to Webster County and to separate his case from that of Beason.
The scheduling changes came in the same week Special Prosecutor Lawrence Scalise filed paperwork alleging that Daniel and Beason aided each other in making a $25,000 contribution to Culver's re-election campaign.
''They changed their theory of the case,'' Fisher said.
He described the change as ''somewhat unusual'' considering that the alleged offense occurred in 2009 and the criminal charges were filed on Oct. 11, 2010.
''As we have said all along, Mr. Daniel did not enter into any agreement to make any type of improper campaign contribution,'' Fisher said.
Fisher received Scalise's documents Friday afternoon, and said he couldn't comment in detail on them.
A phone call seeking comment from Scalise wasn't returned Friday.
Daniel and Beason are the last people facing charges connected to the $25,000 donation. Webster County Entertainment, the organization Daniel led in an effort to establish the Diamond Jo Fort Dodge casino, is also charged with making a campaign contribution in the name of another and willful failure to report a campaign contribution. Beason, who was advising the casino planners, was charged with those offenses and obstruction.
On May 13, Scalise dropped all charges against parties he had previously identified as the principal offenders in the case. They were Dubuque-based Peninsula Gaming LLC and its two top leaders, Brent Stevens, the chief executive officer, and Jonathan Swain, the chief operating officer.
That development prompted Fisher and Scalise to request a delay in the trial, which Price approved this week.
Peninsula Gaming was to operate the local casino if a state license was awarded for it.
The $25,000 donation was made in November 2009, soon after Peninsula Gaming paid Daniel and two other Fort Dodge men, Jim Kesterson and Merrill Leffler Jr., a consulting fee of the same amount. Kesterson and Leffler were not charged with any crimes.
The Diamond Jo Fort Dodge plan collapsed in May 2010 when the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission declined to issue the needed license.
Court date pushed back to October
By BILL SHEA, Messenger staff writer , Messenger News
The trial of a Fort Dodge businessman charged with making an illegal campaign contribution to former Gov. Chet Culver has been postponed until the fall while a special prosecutor and defense attorneys spar via court filings.
This week, Polk County Associate District Court Judge William Price moved the starting date of Steve Daniel's trial to Oct. 10.
But the trial won't happen at all if Daniel's attorney, Monty Fisher, of Fort Dodge, succeeds in getting the charges of making a campaign contribution in the name of another and willful failure to disclose a campaign contribution dismissed.
Leon Spies, the attorney for co-defendant Curtis Beason, of Davenport, said he intends to file a motion to dismiss all charges against his client as well.
Price hasn't set a date for a hearing on those requests to dismiss charges.
He has set a June 28 hearing on requests to move the trial of Daniel to Webster County and to separate his case from that of Beason.
The scheduling changes came in the same week Special Prosecutor Lawrence Scalise filed paperwork alleging that Daniel and Beason aided each other in making a $25,000 contribution to Culver's re-election campaign.
''They changed their theory of the case,'' Fisher said.
He described the change as ''somewhat unusual'' considering that the alleged offense occurred in 2009 and the criminal charges were filed on Oct. 11, 2010.
''As we have said all along, Mr. Daniel did not enter into any agreement to make any type of improper campaign contribution,'' Fisher said.
Fisher received Scalise's documents Friday afternoon, and said he couldn't comment in detail on them.
A phone call seeking comment from Scalise wasn't returned Friday.
Daniel and Beason are the last people facing charges connected to the $25,000 donation. Webster County Entertainment, the organization Daniel led in an effort to establish the Diamond Jo Fort Dodge casino, is also charged with making a campaign contribution in the name of another and willful failure to report a campaign contribution. Beason, who was advising the casino planners, was charged with those offenses and obstruction.
On May 13, Scalise dropped all charges against parties he had previously identified as the principal offenders in the case. They were Dubuque-based Peninsula Gaming LLC and its two top leaders, Brent Stevens, the chief executive officer, and Jonathan Swain, the chief operating officer.
That development prompted Fisher and Scalise to request a delay in the trial, which Price approved this week.
Peninsula Gaming was to operate the local casino if a state license was awarded for it.
The $25,000 donation was made in November 2009, soon after Peninsula Gaming paid Daniel and two other Fort Dodge men, Jim Kesterson and Merrill Leffler Jr., a consulting fee of the same amount. Kesterson and Leffler were not charged with any crimes.
The Diamond Jo Fort Dodge plan collapsed in May 2010 when the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission declined to issue the needed license.
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