Month: June 2006

The Roscoe Dixon trial moves into its second week Monday, with the prosecution expected to finish presenting its case by Tuesday. Here’s a wrap-up of the first week’s highlights, or, should we say, lowlights from several hours of secretly recorded video and audio tapes and DVDs.
 
“Throw me one of them stacks, man.” Roscoe Dixon to bag man Barry Myers, in the Harbor Town home of FBI informant Tim Willis. Dixon walks out with a stack of ten $100 bills, leaving another $5,000 on the table. Myers testified that he gave Dixon an additional $1,000 later that day and that Dixon was “scared of his own (expletive) shadow.”
 
“Take care of Barry.” Dixon to Willis. This is likely to become the signature line from the case. The government contends Dixon was wily enough to avoid taking money directly but corrupt enough to take it on the sly on at least three occasions. Or as Myers put it on one of the tapes, “You gon’ hand it to me and it’s gonna be understood because you didn’t give him nothin’.”
 
“I’ll be a John Ford in there.” Barry Myers thought he would be chosen by the Shelby County Commission to replace Dixon when his mentor was appointed to a county job by Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton. With allowances for bluster and the bad language many people use when they think they are engaging in a private conversation, Myers gives a thoroughly cynical view of a state government in which influence is for sale, money is the object, and sincerity and “environmental shit” are for suckers.
 
No sentimental claptrap about doing the peoples’ business when Mr. Myers goes to Nashville. With visions of dollar signs in his head, Myers vowed to “make so much fuckin’ money” in the Senate by selling his influence to “white boys.” Dixon, he said, even gave him his personal copy of the state seal. Alas, it wasn’t to be. The commission chose Sidney Chism instead.
 
“This is a fight over money.” Roscoe Dixon’s evaluation of the battle to extend Tenn-Care benefits to the Children’s Dental Clinic network in Memphis at the expense of established dentists such as Cleo Kirk and Vasco Smith. Prosecutors showed these tapes to attempt to persuade the jury that Dixon was “predicated,” or inclined to take bribes even before the phony FBI company E-Cycle Management was created.
 
“I’ll show Barry how to mobilize the black caucus.” Dixon told Willis and other E-Cycle representatives he would use his legislative experience of 22 years to their advantage. The black caucus includes 18 lawmakers, 12 of whom are from Memphis.
 
“This means a quarter million to me.” Tim Willis, posing as a lobbyist for E-Cycle Management, claimed he would make this much money if a bill was passed giving his company exclusive salvage rights to state computers and other electronic equipment. Barry Myers figured he could make as much as $75,000. “I get a piece of that action,” he said.
 
“I want to be a player.” Tim Willis tells this to Roscoe Dixon three times as he counts out $6,000 as Dixon and Myers watch wrestling on television at Willis’ house. Dixon advises Willis to go slow because Willis is only 33 years old at the time.
 
“I would always short the amount I gave them initially so he would have to count it.” Willis explained that this way the FBI would have a better picture of the payoff. In the meeting with Myers and Dixon, he first lays out $5,500, then pulls the remaining $500 out of his pocket after Myers does the first count in front of Willis’ hidden camera. Willis recorded hundreds of hours of tapes. In one situation, he was wearing a body wire while simultaneously taping a call on his cell phone.
 
“Barry needs to quietly take care of Kathryn.” Dixon mentions his legislative colleague Kathryn Bowers several times on the tapes. On one tape, Willis and Myers rendezvous with Bowers to make an alleged payoff of $2,000. Bowers has been indicted and is scheduled to go on trial later this year.
 
“If we don’t get the legislation, the rest of the planning doesn’t matter.” Joe Carson, whose real name is Joseph Carroll, was the fake CEO of E-Cycle Management. Carson told Myers and Dixon the bill he wanted passed – a “stand alone, sneak-through-the-backdoor bill,” as he put it – would enable to company to do a public stock offering. If the stock soared in price, E-Cycle’s executives would make $20 to $30 million in the fake scenario.
 
“How many babies will be born defective?” Dixon offered this as a rationale for the E-Cycle legislation, which would supposedly have kept old computers out of Tennessee landfills and the Memphis artesian well water system. “You don’t want the PCBs goin’ into the ground water,” Carson agreed.
 
“Our business model made absolutely no sense.” It’s not every day you hear a CEO trash his own company, but this is how Carroll, aka Carson, sized up E-Cycle when he took the stand last week. “Nobody ever questioned us about the way our business operated,” said Carroll, a former FBI agent for 30 years.
 
“It’s just the niggas you wanna be payin’.” Myers tells E-Cycle officials not to waste their time on white lawmakers such as Paul Stanley and Curtis Person.
 
“Once I got contracts I’m golden, baby. I’m in fat city.” L.C. was the undercover name for E-Cycle’s other top official. L.C. put the dollar signs in the eyes of Barry Myers with quotes like this one. “I’m looking’ at makin’ 20 to 30 million if it goes public,” L.C. told Myers.
 
“Did you ever see a better con man than L.C. or Timothy Willis?” Defense attorney Coleman Garrett got this line in on cross examination before assistant U.S. Attorney Tim DiScenza objected. The objection was sustained.
 
Garrett plans to argue that Dixon was entrapped, but he seems to be scoring few points with the jury so far. Myers and Willis came off as glib and occasionally smug, but the money tapes, which the jury saw as many as three times each, will likely speak louder than any witness. Garrett will begin presenting witnesses Tuesday or Wednesday. They may possibly include other state lawmakers who will testify about E-Cycle or may be character witnesses for Dixon.
 
 

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Reportedly, there was, during the supposed “witch-hunt” days of the McCarthyite ‘50s, a certain cachet that went with being targeted as a security risk – or, at the very least, with being the subject of rumors attesting to one’s having – maybe — been part of a once modish political current.

It had nothing to do with Left, Right, Communism, Capitalism, Republican, Democrat –any of those things. In fact, to the degree that there really was a subversive movement (and there was) the subpoena envy of the time was entirely an affliction of the innocent and the wannabes. The political career (and much of the literary product) of Norman Mailer — a literary leftist, if there ever was one — cannot be understood without realizing this.

To judge by the number of names that were dropped in the first three days of the Roscoe Dixon extortion trial, something like this malady is about to afflict the political and civic spheres of Greater Memphis. – maybe even of Tennessee at large.

Most of those who have figured so far – in testimony, in transcripts, in surveillance videotapes and audiotapes – are not there with any taint of criminal culpability, actual or hypothetical. The few who are so incriminated (including a key legislator or two) have the principals in the drama to thank for that – mainly undercover informant Tim Willis and “cooperating witness” Barry Myers, both world-class motor mouths. But …so long as no indictment comes of it, all they have to worry about is the embarrassment, and this, too, will pass.

But scores of other names of currently active public figures have been tossed around. as well: the Harold Fords (Jr. and Sr.), Mike Kernell, Sidney Chism, Jay Bailey, Ron Redwing, J.W. Gibson, Dick Lodge, Wanda Halbert, Paul Stanley, Curtis Person, A C Wharton, Bill Gibbons, Steve Cohen, Joe Kent, Jim Kyle Jackie Welch, Ron Belz, Karl Schledwitz….Many readers will recognize these as the names of highly influential people, in and out of government. As for those who don’t – well, take our word for it.

The list goes on and on: Civil servants of various kinds — city, county, state – and everyday activists like Jerry Hall, G.A. Hardaway, John Freeman – even the latter’s mother, Lois Freeman, in connection with her being in the hospital with an illness. Freeman’s longtime running mate, David Upton, has to be wondering – with some disappointed covetousness – when his name will turn up via tape or testimony on t h is Who’s Who list.

To tell you the truth, the thought crossed my mind that my own name might (in my role as faithful chronicler of public matters, including legislative ones, you understand). But naaah, I didn’t know Barry Myers at all in his fateful role as factotum to state senator Dixon (I did seek him out when he was being considered last year as an interim successor to Dixon, who had gone to work for Shelby County mayor Wharton), and had only a superficial acquaintance with Willis, who – get this, signed a “Personal Services Agreement” with the government to go get some goods on people like Myers and Dixon who had befriended and trusted him. Upwards of $150,000 for a couple of years’ work.

Ah well, why should I be judgmental, when Dixon himself isn’t? Upon learning that Willis was due to testify on Friday, Roscoe (whom I do know) confided during a break, “I’d be interested to see ol’ Tim.” And, after Willis had testified all afternoon toward the end, presumably, of putting Dixon away, the former senator said only, “He looked real sharp,” commenting on the nifty threads and bold tie of the witness, who is said to have spent time in California of late, with an eye on cracking the movie business.

Willis is, of course, the star and unbilled director of much of the video, incriminating to the accused, which has been seen in court. Parts of the plot, as of last week, remained obscure, however – such as Willis’ claim that it was Myers and Dixon, not himself, who initiated talk of trading money (the FBI’s) for influence (Dixon’s).

Maybe it doesn’t matter legally, and presiding judge Jon McCalla will certainly instruct the jury on the wherefores of it all, but the image that recurs to some of us lay folks is that of the undercover cop posing as a hooker. We know from all the procedural dramas we’ve seen that she has to wait for the john to suggest a deal. If she initiates such talk on her own, it’s entrapment.

That’s how it goes in the movies, anyhow – though this drama, with its large and impressive cast of characters and high-profile audience and different set of rules (whereby it matters whether a defendant has been “predicated,” i.e., shown to have a predisposition toward the crime he’s charged with), may turn out differently.

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Well, apparently the folks at the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) think Memphis has more landmarks worthy of protection from terrorism than do either of the cities that were actually attacked on 9/11. Remember DHS? In case you don’t, maybe “heckuva job, Brownie,” will refresh your recollection.

In  announcing its allocation of counter-terrorism funds, DHS decided that neither Washington nor New York have any landmarks that could be likely targets for terrorism, so those cities’ allocations were cut by 40 percent. I guess they figured that once the World Trade Center towers were taken out, and the terrorists realized that the Pentagon is too well fortified to take down, that didn’t leave much in those cities in the way of attractive targets for Al Qaeda. And as for Washington, this decision ought to tell Congressmen and Senators just exactly how valuable a piece of property DHS considers the U.S. Capital (much less the White House) to be.

But hey, New York’s loss is Memphis’ gain. So, DHS gave Memphis $4.2 million, up from zero last year. Memphis was one of only three cities of the 46 that received grants this year (the others being Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando) which received nothing in 2005, but it still didn’t receive as much as the obvious terrorist targets of Omaha (hey, beef’s important, even if most terrorists don’t eat it), Cleveland (see, I told you the real Rock ‘n Roll Museum was a big deal) or Pittsburgh (gotta keep my homies, the Steelers, safe). Memphis should be thrilled that DHS apparently considers Graceland, Mud Island and the Rock and Soul Museum more worthy of an increase in anti-terrorism funds than it considers, oh, say the Statue of Liberty, the New York Stock Exchange or the Brooklyn Bridge. If I were a terrorist, which one would I find a more attractive target, the acknowledged financial center of the world or the home of blues and barbecue?

I’ve never quite understood the mentality that suggests Memphis as the target of terrorists. If Memphis is on any terrorist’s “A” hit list, then I think we’re well along the way to winning the “war on terror.” It’s a tribute to the Chicken Little mentality that the Bush administration (helped by DHS’s policies—remember those bogus color-coded “terror alerts” that seemed, fortuitously, to coincide with the White House’s political problems?) has successfully fostered. Oh sure, we’ve got FedEx (imagine the terror associated with the Rendezvous not being able to deliver its rib orders overnight) and maybe even Millington (imagine all those ships not being able to get out of the only landlocked Naval station in the country), but let’s face it: if the terrorists want the biggest bang for their buck, Memphis isn’t going to be high on their list, and certainly not higher than, say, the Empire State Building, or CIA headquarters. But, if I’m a terrorist, and I’ve got some spare time (and money), I might get down to Memphis, but not before I get down to Orlando to take care of Disney World.

If you credit our government’s terror-related policies (as I patriotically do), there are tens of millions of potential terrorists lurking all over this country. After all, that’s why the NSA has been listening to our phone conversations and reading our phone records, isn’t it? If that’s so, it’s not a stretch to believe that Memphis is teeming with terrorists, just waiting for their instructions from Osama bin Laden to strike our vital infrastructure. In other words, if you have a neighbor who’s just a bit too swarthy-complected, be afraid, be very afraid. But the fact is, even our own government acknowledges that there are, at most, only several hundred terrorists lurking in our country. How, for goodness sake, are they going to be able to attack 46 cities, either at once, or even one after another? Remember how hard a time they had attacking two? 

Notwithstanding this bizarre order of priorities, I am delighted Memphis will reportedly be using the DHS money to upgrade its first responder communications capabilities. “Interoperability,” (i.e., the ability of fire, police and other emergency personnel to communicate with each other) has been a major problem for this country’s emergency response system for years. It’s one the 9/11 Commission, for all the inadequacies of its investigation, pointed to as contributing to the loss of many first responders’ lives on 9/11. It amazes me that, in spite of the fact that he had eight years to do something about it (between the first and second attacks on the World Trade Center), Rudy Giuliani (a by-now folkloric hero of that day, and consequently a prominently-mentioned GOP candidate for the presidency) totally dropped the ball on interoperability, and even more so, that he’s managed (at least so far) to escape any accountability for dropping that ball. In fact, to this day, New York still doesn’t have vital communications equipment necessary to deal with emergencies in its skyscrapers.

So the good news is that, thanks to DHS’ strange assessment of the threat of terrorism, Memphis will get a bunch of money it can use for things other than just dealing with the threat of terrorism. But the bad news is, DHS, which is responsible for keeping our homeland secure, still doesn’t have any better an idea of how to do that than it did during Hurricane Katrina. Now that’s something that really ought to make you afraid.

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“Our business model made absolutely no sense.”

It’s not every day you hear a CEO trash his own company.
But this was the fake CEO of the fake E-Cycle Management computer recycling
company.

Joe Carroll, aka Joe Carson, CEO of E-Cycle, took the
witness stand Friday in the bribery trial of former state senator Roscoe Dixon.

“Nobody ever questioned us about the way our business
operated,” Carroll said, as jurors watched courtroom monitors showing pictures
of E-Cycle’s phony business cards and brochures. The ruse worked on Dixon, who
agreed to push legislation that would have given E-Cycle first dibs on thousands
of used computers discarded by the state government and other agencies.

E-Cycle was supposedly going to ship the junk overseas to
the Philippines for salvage and reworking, although the specifics were far from
clear. They didn’t need to be. What mattered was the state contract that would
enable E-Cycle to go public and make millionaires of its founders when the stock
price soared.

At least that was the plan. Carroll, a 30-year FBI agent
who came out of semi-retirement to work on Operation Tennessee Waltz, said the
government took pains to make sure no bill helping E-Cycle actually became law.

The government
says Dixon and associate Barry Myers were paid $9,500 to pass a bill favorable
to E-Cycle. The trial continues Monday.

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