Tag: bribe

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News News Feature

Ford Completes Testimony; Case to Jury Tuesday

A subdued Edmund Ford left the witness stand Monday afternoon after prosecutors replayed their payoff tapes and drove home their contention that the payments were bribes for Ford’s influence over the Memphis City Council.

By testifying, Ford got to tell jurors his interpretation of the $8,900 in payments he took from lobbyist Joe Cooper in his own words. But he left himself open to a methodical cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Laurenzi that could have a devastating effect on jurors.

Jurors heard Ford, on tape, utter such memorable lines as “You know I can carry seven votes, can’t I?” and “We got all the votes” and “I’ll drum up seven or I’ll make somebody walk out” and “Really, I didn’t have too much of a problem” at the very moment he was taking wads of $100 bills from Cooper and sliding them inside his coat pocket.

Ford and his attorney Michael Scholl continued to put Cooper “on trial” as Ford called him a liar who “ran off at the mouth” and had as many as three personalities. But the government and Cooper have readily acknowledged his 1977 federal conviction and his more recent conviction on money-laundering charges.

As one payoff tape was played, Ford explained that he was “very busy” that day and things were “going in one ear and out the other.”

Laurenzi replied, “Why didn’t you give it back?” as the tape was stopped so jurors could see the money on the screen in the courtroom.

Ford said he kept it to pay down a loan on the funeral home from developer Jackie Welch.

“It was for your benefit, right?” Laurenzi countered.

The day ended with Scholl calling eight character witnesses for Ford. With the jury out of the courtroom, Scholl told U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays he will use an entrapment defense.

That defense did not work in Tennessee Waltz cases and is considered something of a long shot.

Mays told jurors they can expect to begin deliberations Tuesday afternoon.

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News The Fly-By

Ho Ho Ho

Sure, local politicians are for sale, but how much exactly should a person expect to pay to own one? Is it the sort of purchase you can make outright, or will a loan be required? And will prices remain steady throughout the holiday gift-giving season or will costs soar in the wake of former county commissioner Bruce Thompson’s indictment on charges of trading his influence for more than $250,000 in consulting fees.

Sting operations like Tennessee Waltz and Main Street Sweeper have shown Bluff City shoppers that, if you look hard enough, bargains abound. The services of various civic officials may be rented for only a few thousand dollars. Purchase prices, however, vary widely, and the serious shopper should be prepared to spend as much as they would for a new or gently used car.

Charged with taking less than $10,000 each, city councilman Edmund Ford and state senator Roscoe Dixon are clearly the 2001 Honda CRVs (with less than 200,000 miles) of local politics. Admitting that she shared $11,500 with an accomplice, Kathryn Bowers pled guilty to accepting slightly more than the price of a base model 2007 Kia Rio but slightly less than a Kia Rio LX. Rickey Peete, who once went to the hooscow for less than the cost of a rusty 1989 Malibu, recently upped his alleged value to $14,000, or the price of a new Chevy Malibu.

Considering the $24,000 given to Michael Hooks and the $55,000 given to former state senator John Ford, it’s fair to say that, at present, Memphis’ average corrupt politician may be purchased for about the same amount as a 2007 Chrysler Sebring (loaded) or a more basic version of the Chrysler’s much nicer 2007 Town & Country.

If Thompson’s charges stick, he’ll send the average cost of corruption over the $50,000 mark and into Cadillac Escalade territory. But that’s still chump change compared to John Ford. He could be convicted of accepting an additional $800,000, raising the average purchase price of a local politician to nearly $170,000, or the cost of a sweet 2007 Bentley Continental GT.

Happy shopping.

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News

Thompson to Feds: This Is No Game

Less than an hour after pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges Wednesday, former county commissioner Bruce Thompson, who is a competitive tennis player, took a few swings at the style and substance of the government’s case.

“This is not a game,” Thompson said in media appearance in attorney Leslie Ballin’s office. “This is my life. This is my freedom that is on the line here.”

That was a swipe at FBI Special Agent in Charge My Harrison who said Tuesday, “Same game, different name,” after the indictment was handed up.

The phrase proved irresistible to print and broadcast media outlets, and Thompson said he resented it. He said his case has nothing in common with Tennessee Waltz, that he is entitled to the presumption of innocence, that he plans to go to trial, and that he expects to be found innocent.

“I have done nothing wrong, as I have said from the beginning,” said Thompson, who was a commissioner from 2002-2006.

The indictment alleges that Thompson extorted $263,000 from H&M Construction by “falsely representing” that he could influence school board members to award the company a $46 million contract, and that the company would stand little chance without his influence.

Thompson, 48, left the media appearance without taking questions.

He and Ballin made it clear that part of their defense will hang on an opinion issued by Shelby County Attorney Brian Kuhn in a memorandum in 2004. The opinion, which was actually given twice in slightly different form in February and again in August, was requested by Thompson.

“In my opinion, it would not be a conflict of interest for you to act as a consultant for a large public company in aiding them to try to get business and/or contracts with the Memphis City Schools or the Shelby County Schools,” Kuhn wrote.

The opinion does not say whether or not it would be legal. Ballin told reporters that if he had been asking for the opinion as an attorney he would have gotten Kuhn to be specific about the legality as well as the conflict of interest question.

Ballin said the dollar amounts reported as being paid to Thompson in the indictment are accurate. But he disputed the part of the indictment that involves Thompson in the payment of $7,000 in apparent campaign contributions or other payments to school board members via minority contractor Kirby Salton.

Ballin said that $263,000 would be a reasonable fee — roughly one half of one percent of the contract — for helping H&M get the business. He said Thompson had other consulting clients at the time, but he declined to name them.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla. Ballin said he thinks it could go to trial as early as next February.

Earlier Wednesday afternoon, Thompson formally entered a plea of not guilty in a brief appearance at the federal building. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on each of the four counts on which he was indicted.

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News

Rickey Peete Gets 51-month Prison Sentence

Same courtroom, same defendant, same charge.

Former Memphis City Councilman Rickey Peete, who pleaded guilty to accepting $14,500 in bribes while in office in 2006, was sentenced to 51 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Samuel Mays.

That was the upper end of the 41-51 month sentencing range in the guidelines, and Mays said he was influenced by “the serious and repetitive nature of this offense.” Peete, 52, was convicted of bribery in 1989 when he was a first-term councilman.

“Honest representation is the basis of a free society,” said Mays, who told Peete he found it “really painful” to have to send him to prison.

“I don’t sentence many evil people,” said Mays. “I sentence good people who do stupid and illegal things.”

Peete, a Morehouse College graduate with a master’s degree, was reelected to the council in 1995 after serving 30 months in prison. He was a Memphis school board member before going on the council.

Choking up at times, Peete spoke on his own behalf.

“I am humiliated, remorseful, and ashamed of my actions which have brought me to this time and place,” he said.

He apologized to his family, friends, constituents, and fellow citizens.

“I accept responsibility for my error in judgment,” he said.

Peete took $14,500 from lobbyist Joe Cooper for his support on a billboard issue. Cooper was working undercover and Peete was taped and recorded. His deception and willingness to take multiple bribes worked against him and showed that he had not learned his lesson from his previous conviction, said assistant U.S. Attorney Vivian Donelson. She said Peete was more concerned about getting caught than serving his constituents honorably.

Three people spoke on Peete’s behalf: Alma Morris, Rev. Melvin Wade, and Virginia Anderson. They said Peete was especially helpful to children and senior citizens in his council super-district.

“We need him back in the community,” said Anderson.

Under council rules, Peete cannot run again. No date was set for him to report to prison. He will be in minimum security and will be as close to Memphis as possible.

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News

Feds Indict ex-Commissioner Bruce Thompson

Former Shelby County commissioner Bruce Thompson was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on four charges connected to his work as a consultant to a Jackson, Tennessee construction company.

The indictment was announced at a press conference by United States Attorney David Kustoff and FBI Special Agent in Charge My Harrison.

“What can I say? What can I possibly say?” said Harrison. “Same game, different name.”

Harrison warned that public officials who think they are “entitled” to more than their salary are on the FBI’s watch list.

“Whether you’re north, south, east, or west we’re watching,” she said.

The investigation of school construction contracts is ongoing, Kustoff said. A grand jury has been hearing testimony about campaign contributions and other matters. According to the indictment, Thompson did not actually have the power to influence votes on the Memphis school board but “falsely represented” to H&M Construction and its joint-venture partner Salton-Fox Construction that he could help them win a contract to build three city schools. The commission appropriates money to fund schools in Shelby County, including the Memphis City School system.

The indictment says Thompson, 48, received $263,992 from H&M in two payments in 2005 after the school board awarded the firm the contract, reversing a previous vote that gave the contract to another firm. The indictment says that Thompson “did cause to be placed a check in the amount of $7,000 addressed to Kirby Salton from H&M Construction in the custody of an interstate common carrier” on November 16, 2004. That is the technical description of a mail-fraud charge.

Both the wording of the indictment and Kustoff’s remarks, however, left it unclear whether the $7,000 was passed on to board members and exactly what Thompson was supposed to do for his $263,992, which is nearly nine times the annual salary of a county commissioner.
“Thompson would falsely represent to representatives of the joint venture that by reason of his position as a Shelby County commissioner he had the ability to control the votes of members of the Memphis City School Board in connection with the awarding of a contract to construct three schools,” the indictment says.

Thompson, a white Republican from East Memphis, was a commissioner from 2002-2006 when he decided not to seek another term. His name came up in the Tennessee Waltz investigation when FBI agents posing as executives of E-Cycle Management said they wanted to meet him. The first Tennessee Waltz indictments were made public in May of 2005, putting public officials on notice to be careful about their business dealings, especially with regard to consulting. Thompson’s contacts with H&M regarding the three school construction jobs began in 2004, according to the indictment.
Thompson initial court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.

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Editorial Opinion

A Bridge Too Far?

Anybody who expresses skepticism about the prospects of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in tandem with the FBI, for closing out a prosecution successfully should probably submit to the proverbial head examination. After all, in the 11 Tennessee Waltz-related cases tried or otherwise resolved so far, federal prosecutors and the men and women of the bureau have proved to be literally invincible — a perfect record.

In the last week alone, guilty pleas were wrung from two lions of the state legislature: former state senator Kathryn Bowers of Memphis, who had resigned after being indicted, and state senator Ward Crutchfield of Chattanooga, who still serves. It’s clear though that he, like Bowers, who is due for sentencing this fall, will be among the missing when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.

But we are reserving judgment about both the validity and the outcome of new prosecutions announced last week by the two federal offices. These indictments — of former MLGW head Joseph Lee, city councilman Edmund Ford, and Ford’s landlord Dennis Churchwell — pose some troubling questions. Not that we countenance the offenses these three men are accused of — namely, engaging in improper trade-offs of favors to secure private goals from city government. Basically, the entire nexus of the case lies in the incontrovertible fact of Ford’s being a world-class deadbeat in relation to the whopping bills he owed to MLGW in utility fees and to Churchwell in rent for his funeral home.

The government charges that Ford was given a pass by Lee in return for the councilman’s favorable attitude on matters, some personal and financial, of importance to the utility president. Churchwell and Ford are accused of a compact in which the councilman voted Churchwell’s way on zoning issues in which the latter had a vested interest, in return for inhabiting his professional quarters rent-free.

Sleaz-eee! This is big-time corruption, and it should be punished. We shed no tears for Lee, who was sacked from his job when these and other matters became public, nor for Ford, who already carries a bribery indictment and is clearly a scofflaw of unmatchable arrogance, nor for the self-serving Churchwell, for whom the word “lout” may well have been invented.

The question is: How much of this unsavory one-hand-washes-the-other mess actually rises to the level of crime? It is not by way of excusing the behavior to observe that these acts are consistent with and bear the same shape, odor, and texture of the way politics, government, and private interests have always interacted. If this case succeeds, are we to call for the prosecution of a public servant who sponsors or votes for significant legislation on behalf of a major campaign contributor? Does anybody doubt that causal connections to one degree or another exist in such instances? And how does one extricate from all these itemized quid pro quos simple facts of friendship or convenience?

The burden of proof is, as always, on the government, but in this case we trust it can also demonstrate to a jury that it is not expanding its immense power into areas of conduct that, however questionable, have rarely if ever been regarded as criminal.

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Opinion

Keeping It Unreal

So the government fired five shots at John Ford and hit him once, federal prosecutors kept their Tennessee Waltz winning streak unbroken, and the E-Cycle FBI Actors Repertory Company closed another Memphis performance.

This one was a little shaky. Prosecutors said they are sending out a strong message of deterrence. But four years after its inception, Operation Tennessee Waltz still looks more like a sting targeting Democrats in Memphis and Chattanooga than a purge of “systemic corruption” in state government. Its success is due to secret tapes of a handful of public officials taking bribes from a fake company that their colleagues were too honest, too smart, or too irrelevant to deal with.

Or maybe they just know how to Google.

Type “Joe Carson” and “FBI undercover” in a Google search and you find that Joe Carroll, whose FBI undercover name is Joe Carson, starred in at least two FBI undercover productions before Tennessee Waltz. In “Operation Lightning Strike” from 1991 to 1994, he posed as a big shot for Eastern Tech Manufacturing Company, a phony business seeking crooked contracts in the aerospace industry in Houston. His undercover name? Joe Carson. The sting resulted in indictments and a mistrial.

In 2001, Carroll and the FBI resurrected “Joe Carson” in a Maryland undercover operation targeting state lawmakers. His phony Atlanta-based company was seeking crooked deals with Comcast for fiber-optic contracts. A former state senator, Thomas Bromwell, is under federal indictment but has not yet gone on trial.

Give the FBI, Carson, L.C. McNeil, and Tim Willis credit for pulling off a two-year Tennessee undercover operation, including the 2004 and 2005 legislative sessions, without a leak. The Ford tapes were so powerful that the defense barely tried to explain them away. They left no doubt that money was exchanged for special legislation. The sting worked, but it hasn’t yet exposed corruption in real deals in high places.

Operation Tennessee Waltz started in 2003, after FBI agents investigating phony contracts in Shelby County Juvenile Court found evidence of “systemic corruption” in state government. Seven of the 11 Tennessee Waltz indictments were announced at a press conference in Memphis on May 26, 2005. The investigation, convictions, and guilty pleas since 2003 have produced no indictments for bribery or other wrongdoing by any full-time state employee, lobbyist, or contractor. On tape, Ford boasts that he is the man who “does the deals” and “control[s] the votes,” but his trial was all about E-Cycle and legislation that never got beyond committee.

“Systemic corruption,” it seems, is a product of Shelby County and Hamilton County, two of the 95 counties in Tennessee. Five Memphians have been convicted or pleaded guilty. In a conversation with agent McNeil in 2004, Barry Myers, the bag man who later became a government witness, explained why lawmakers were wary of the free-spending black millionaire: “To be honest with ya’, most of the money I used to pick up come from white folks, white males, established businessmen that would send money to Kathryn, Lois, Roscoe, and John. That’s where the real money came from.”

Who spent the “real money” for “the big juice” — Ford, Roscoe Dixon, Kathryn Bowers, and Lois DeBerry? We don’t know. The payment of “consulting fees” by real companies is at the heart of Ford’s pending case in Nashville, which is not part of Tennessee Waltz. He has a hearing on May 3rd. Eli Richardson, assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville, said “it remains to be seen” how the Memphis case will mesh with the Nashville case, which apparently relies on old-fashioned evidence and witnesses.

“The conviction in Memphis opens up all kinds of possibilities for plea negotiation that didn’t exist before,” said Bud Cummins, a former federal prosecutor in Arkansas. “But there is not a whole lot of pressure on the government. They are still holding most of the cards. My best guess is they’re pretty intent on going to trial.”

Ford could appeal his Memphis conviction and request a sentencing delay until after he is tried in Nashville. If he is sentenced and goes to prison before his appeal is resolved, he could still be tried on the Nashville charges.

“We try people all the time who are sitting there in prison clothes,” Cummins said, although Ford would probably be unrestrained and in civilian clothes in the courtroom, with a federal marshal standing behind him.

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News

John Ford Guilty on Bribery Charge

John Ford became the latest casualty of the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz sting Friday when a jury returned a guilty verdict for bribery, one of five counts the former state senator was charged with.

That was Count Two of the indictment against Ford. The jury could not agree on Count One, a charge of extortion, and presiding Judge Daniel Breen declared a mistrial on that count.

Three other counts, relating to charges of witness intimidation alleged against Ford, resulted in Not Guilty findings.

Sentencing of Ford was set for Tuesday, July 31, at 9 a.m. — a point in time distant enough to allow for an appeal of the verdict by Ford, as well as possible negotiations between himself and the U,.S. Attorney’s office that might involve an offer of cooperation in future prosecutions.

The jury’s deadlock on the Count One extortion charge would seem to mean that defense attorney Mike Scholl gained some traction in his efforts to demonstrate undue inducements on Ford by FBI agents. The senator ultimately was persuaded to accept some $55,000 for legislative aid given the bogus E-Cycle computer firm.

There apparently was no such disagreement on Count Two, alleging bribery. That charge was backed up by countless FBI surveillance videos showing Ford, then an influential state senator, accepting sums of money in 2004 and 2005.

The three intimidation counts were always regarded as the weakest points of the indictment, and, though surveillance evidence was presented in court to substantiate that Ford had issued threats against agent “L.C. McNiel” and undercover informant Tim Willis, it was not corroborated in depth and was clearly subject to alternate interpretations.

How the verdict came

News of a pending verdict was circulated at about 3 p.m., Friday, the third full day of deliberations. The 11th-floor courtroom of Judge Breen was quickly filled up by members of the media, friends and family of ex-Senator Ford, and representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s office and the F.B.I.

A message from the jury,shared with the prosecution and the defense by Judge Breen, quickly established that all counts had been resolved except for one. Sensing victory, chief prosecutor Tim DiScenza moved for acceptance of the available counts and for a declaration of mistrial on the unresolved one. Defense attorney Scholl asked for time to consult with his client.

In the end, DiScenza’s preference would be honored by Judge Breen after the judge had called the jury in and heard from its foreman that no agreement was possible on Count One.

Two circumstances had prefigured the outcome. One was a question had come to Judge Breen late on the evening before asking in effect for a definition of a phrase in the indictment relating to official culpability.

The other indication that a verdict of some sort was imminent came when jurors opted not to go out for lunch on Friday but had food delivered, which they ate quickly before resuming afternoon deliberations.

Ford ‘Disappointed’

Although the accusaed senator had enjoyed a leisurely lunch with members of his immediate and extended family at a downtown grill, his attitude was clearly one of somber apprehension, as was theirs. This was in stark contrast to an air of relaxation, even jauntiness, they had all exhibited during break periods on Wednesday and Thursday.

During that lunch, Ford took time out to insist that he had been the victim of entrapment and to express a wish that more time and attention had been devoted to that subject during the trial.

In a brief statement to members of the media after exiting the Federal Building, former Senator Ford, who remains free on bond, expressed disappointment with the verdict.

Although well-wishers for Ford and family members attended the trial throughout, a striking feature of the former senator’s trial was that it attracted less out-of-town media contingents and fewer demonstrators than had a previous one for Ford’s former state Senate colleague, Roscoe Dixon.

Dixon was convicted of bribery and extortion charges last year and is now serving a term in federal prison. Another local figure,former Shelby County Commissioner Michael Hooks Sr., pleaded guilty to similar charges and has yet to begin his term.

Tennessee Waltz indictees yet to be tried include former state Senator Kathryn Bowers and fortmer Memphis school board member Michael Hooks Jr.

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Opinion

Miami Vice

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what happened in Miami in 2004 during three days and nights of partying involving John Ford, an undercover FBI agent, and their dates was courtroom fodder this week in Ford’s corruption trial.

Ford’s girlfriend, Mina Nicole Knox, 26, took the witness stand for nearly two hours as the defense closed out its case in short order. Ford did not testify, and the defense presented only three witnesses, including Knox, attorney Allan Wade, and Ford’s friend William Watson.

At Flyer press time, prosecutors were undecided whether to call a rebuttal witness. Otherwise, U.S. district judge Daniel Breen said the two sides would make closing arguments Tuesday afternoon and the case could go to the jury after that. The trial is in its third week.

Knox, who described her relationship with Ford as “personal,” is a petite former model and professional cheerleader and aspiring actress. She answered questions in a sweet, perky voice as defense attorney Michael Scholl and assistant prosecutor Lorraine Craig asked her about details of her weekend with Ford, Tim Willis, and undercover agent L.C. McNeil in Miami in July 2004. The weekend included a party aboard the now famous E-Cycle yacht, which was in fact an FBI prop, where undercover FBI agents smoked cigars, had drinks, and danced salsa with Knox and several of her male and female friends, including Ford.

Under questioning by Scholl, Knox told jurors that McNeil spent the night with one of her girlfriends in a hotel room and a second night with another woman from their party. McNeil testified last week that in his undercover role he “mirrored” Ford’s party style, but he insisted there was no sexual relationship, drug use, or anything “inappropriate” in his role-playing. In real life, McNeil is an ordained minister and specialist in undercover operations who said “it is a challenge to separate the two” lives he leads.

The weekend in Miami is important because it marked the beginning of the buddy-buddy relationship between Ford and McNeil and established the terms by which McNeil would pay Ford $55,000 in what the government says were bribes over the next nine months. Scholl spent more than three days cross-examining McNeil, who made all the payments and recorded them.

When it came his turn to present witnesses, however, Scholl elected to make it short and sweet. Wade, who represents developer Rusty Hyneman, said he never saw Hyneman give Ford an expensive Rolex watch and that Ford did not really save Hyneman any money on a state environmental matter, as Ford boasts on a secret tape. The other witness, a clothing designer who has known Ford for 20 years, also testified about the Rolex.

Then it was Knox’s turn. She said the purpose of the trip to Miami was to attend a black film festival. She did not recall hearing anything about E-Cycle Management. The defense contends Ford was targeted by the FBI and entrapped.

Prosecutors changed tactics by having Craig, instead of assistant U.S. attorney Tim DiScenza, handle the cross-examination. She asked Knox why three versions of the weekend in Miami that she wrote differed in detail, especially about McNeil’s implied romantic involvement. Knox said the first account was written hastily and in broad terms. Her final account of the weekend was written earlier this month just before the trial began. Craig suggested Ford might have coached Knox, but she denied having any help.

Jurors appeared to be listening intently to Knox, in sharp contrast to previous days in which witness testimony dragged on and was often interrupted by private conversations between the judge and lawyers. The courtroom was also unusually crowded with Ford supporters.

After Knox testified, there was a bench conference, after which Breen announced that the proof was complete unless the government decided during the lunch break to produce a rebuttal witness.

The anti-climactic end of the testimony left spectators and reporters guessing about the outcome and offering their opinions about the high and low points of the trial. With Ford declining to take the stand, the role of star witness must fall to either McNeil or undercover informant Tim Willis.

McNeil got the most face time, and the tapes of his payoffs to Ford were devastating, but for my money the trial’s most dramatic testimony came from Willis when he recounted his visit to Ford’s office in February 2005.

Willis was nervous, very nervous.

He had just gotten a call from Ford asking him to come to Ford’s office in downtown Memphis.

The call was short. Ford wanted to talk about one of Willis’ clients. Since Willis had only one client — E-Cycle Management — he could imagine what Ford was going to ask him: Are you working for the FBI?

Say what you will about Willis, he kept Operation Tennessee Waltz alive for three more months until the unveiling of the indictments on May 26, 2005. His commentary from the witness stand on the tape in which Ford threatens to shoot him was the signature moment in the trial.

The meeting at Ford’s office was Willis’ finest hour as an undercover informant. He outfoxed the fox in his own office, nervously shifting a miniature hidden recording device from one pocket to another while making up stories to counter each of Ford’s probes and keeping his nerve when Ford threatened to shoot him if he found out he was being betrayed.

At the time, Tennessee Waltz had been running for 15 months. Ford had been under suspicion since at least April 19, 2004, and had taken $40,000 in payments from an undercover FBI agent. Ford’s Memphis office was on the second floor of a small building on Third Street, with no easy access or interior observation points for FBI agents. Willis was on his own.

“I had a funny feeling about the call,” he testified.

So he called FBI agents Brian Burns and Mark Jackson, who told him to go ahead and to take a recorder with him.

After they talked awhile, Ford got down to business. How well did Willis know L.C. McNeil, the E-Cycle executive who had been paying Ford? What kind of contract did Willis have with E-Cycle? Was it for two years or three years? Where else did the company do business besides Tennessee?

“I’m just trying to figure out why they need a bill,” said Ford.

Then the big question: “Are they legit, man?”

Ford said Roscoe Dixon and two other unidentified people had warned him to be careful. Unknown to Ford, Dixon, hired a month earlier by Shelby County mayor A C Wharton as an administrative assistant, had been secretly taped for more than a year and had already been caught taking bribes from Willis. But Willis did not pay any bribes to Ford and testified that he didn’t even know Ford had been bribed when he went to his office that day.

To each question, Willis made up an answer. E-Cycle, he suggested, was a shell company for a get-rich-quick stock scheme. McNeil and his partner Joe Carson “hated each other,” and McNeil might be trying to sabotage the deal. McNeil grew up on the rough side of Chicago and might have been a drug dealer as a kid.

Ford wasn’t satisfied. The FBI has a lot of shell companies too, he countered.

“Let me ask you,” he said to Willis. “You ain’t workin’ for none of them motherfuckers?”

Ford whispered that he had a gun and said he would use it. Willis, as he had done several times before, broke into nervous laughter.

“He said he would shoot me dead and go tell my wife that I ran off with another woman,” he testified.

Ford was on the right trail but was missing enough pieces that Willis was able to talk his way out of the jam. The truth was worse than Ford suspected. McNeil was an FBI agent and instructor in undercover operations.

“The feds ain’t cut no deal with you?” Ford asked Willis, who had worked in his campaign in 2002.

In fact, that is exactly what they had done. Willis nervously shifted the recorder around in his pockets, sending static through the audiotape played for the jury.

As Willis was leaving, Ford threatened him again, telling him that if he was working for the FBI, “you gonna die right now.” He touched Willis on his shirt — Willis described it as a pat down — to see if he was wired, and Willis lifted up his shirt. As Willis walked down the stairs, Ford said, “It will not ever come back what you and I said.”

Little did he know that Willis would make it all come back. For the next three months, he never met with Ford again without an FBI agent in the room.

“We almost shut down the operation because of the threat,” Jackson testified.

Since he began cooperating with the government in 2003, Willis has been paid approximately $215,000. But on that day in February 2005 in Ford’s office, Willis was worth every dollar the government paid him.

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Opinion

The Big Dance

The government showed its Tennessee Waltz playbook in the Roscoe Dixon trial last year, but prosecutors face a few more obstacles as they try to convict John Ford.

The X-factors include Ford himself, his attorney Michael Scholl, bagman Barry Myers, controversial U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales, and the Justice Department’s public corruption prosecutors in Nashville, who have Ford under a separate indictment.

In many ways, of course, the trials will be more alike than different. Prosecutor Tim DiScenza will play obscenity-laced audio and videotapes of Ford wheeling and dealing with an undercover FBI agent pretending to be an executive of E-Cycle Management. The payoff picture will be shown from different angles. Jurors will hear how the phony company was created and the role played by informant Tim Willis. Willis and the FBI agents who pretended to be free-spending E-Cycle executives will testify.

But Ford is an iconic name in Memphis politics, and he was a genuine leader in the Tennessee Senate. Dixon, on the other hand, was a plodder and secondary figure even in the estimation of his friends. He bumbled through an appearance on the witness stand, and his lame alibi and inconsistencies made him easy prey for DiScenza. The shrewdness that made Ford a self-described consultant with a high-six-figure income could also make him a formidable defendant, whether or not he chooses to testify. His reputation as a big talker given to outrageous overstatements might actually help him fight the three counts of his indictment that accuse him of threatening Willis.

Scholl has the benefit of learning from the trials of Dixon and Calvin Williams, a former Shelby County employee who was also convicted. Dixon’s attorney, Coleman Garrett, opened with the entrapment defense. Dixon went off in another direction when he took the witness stand. Based on pretrial motions, Scholl will apparently argue that Ford considered the money he got from E-Cycle to be a legitimate consulting fee.

The key witness against Dixon was Myers, described as being “like a son” and “protégé” to the senator. Myers, who did not begin cooperating with the FBI until the Tennessee Waltz indictments became public, was the bagman for Dixon and others. On secretly recorded tapes with E-Cycle bigshots, Myers calls Ford “the big juice” and one of the “heavy hitters” in the legislature. But Myers was not as close to Ford as he was to Dixon. As far as we know, Myers was not Ford’s bagman. Nor is some other bagman waiting in the wings to testify against Ford. It appears that Ford did his own collections.

In the year since Dixon went to trial, the political climate has changed. The Justice Department has taken a pounding from Democrats, who now control Congress, and some Republicans. Last month, it came to light that Gonzales was involved in the firing of eight federal prosecutors, including Bud Cummins of Little Rock. A Republican, Cummins said he resented the misstatements about the firings more than the dismissal itself and believes the Justice Department has lost credibility.

Gonzales is due to testify before the U.S. Senate next week, if he survives that long. Ford jurors will be instructed not to read or watch news during the trial, but Scholl may have an opportunity to suggest that Ford was politically targeted as a Democrat.

Dixon jurors were introduced to the concept of “predication” or predisposition to commit a crime. “You can’t go out trolling for public officials, can you?” DiScenza asked an FBI agent, who explained that Tennessee Waltz began as an investigation of Shelby County Juvenile Court. Jurors heard tapes of Dixon and Myers discussing bribes for helping a dental clinic (for which Dixon was not indicted) to show he was predicated.

In the minds of many Memphians, John Ford was predicated by being John Ford — a fast driver and big talker with marriage problems and expensive tastes. But that won’t cut it in court. Prosecutors will have to be careful not to trip over their own colleagues in Nashville.

In 2006, Ford was indicted in Nashville in connection with his “consulting” payments from companies doing business with the TennCare program. The indictment pushed Ford’s trial date back to April to allow Scholl to review hundreds more documents. Nashville prosecutors will only say that their case will follow sequentially the Memphis Ford trial.

(Check www.memphisflyer.com for regular trial updates.)