Tag: John Ford

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Opinion

Another John Ford Trial?

The John Ford saga isn’t over, but some friends of the former senator would probably breathe easier if it were.

Ford plans to appeal his conviction on a federal bribery charge in the Tennessee Waltz investigation. Last week, he was sentenced to 66 months in prison. The FBI’s undercover sting operation has withstood previous challenges, and jury verdicts are seldom overturned. But the appeal could give Ford some leverage with federal prosecutors in Nashville, where he faces a November 6th trial date on charges related to his consulting work for TennCare contractors between 2001 and 2005.

“If I were his defense attorney, I would be going to the U.S. attorney up there and saying, ‘You all have already convicted my client, and he got 66 months, so what [would happen] if we dropped our appeal?'” said Hickman Ewing, former U.S. attorney in Memphis. “Maybe they would say that if he would plead guilty to one count they would make it concurrent to what he already got. The bottom line is how strong they think their case is.”

In the Tennessee Waltz, Ford’s “business partners” were undercover FBI agents posing as executives of E-Cycle Management while they secretly taped him. Ford was paid $55,000. In the Nashville case, Ford’s main business partners were TennCare contractors Doral Dental and Omnicare Health Plan, renamed UAHC Health Plan of Tennessee. Those companies, unlike E-Cycle, are very real and paid Ford more than $800,000.

If the Nashville case goes to trial, prosecutors will have to get a conviction the old-fashioned way, because there are apparently no secret tapes. The Nashville indictment came 18 months after Ford was indicted in Tennessee Waltz and delayed the start of his Memphis trial a few months. Further complicating things, there has been a change in command in the Nashville office this year. In 2006, Craig Morford was both U.S. attorney and Ford prosecutor, but this year he moved to Washington, D.C., where he is number-two man in the attorney general’s office.

Morford said the indictment revealed “an appalling willingness to violate [Ford’s] duty by using his public position for personal gain.”

Whether his successors share that hunger to prosecute — especially now that Ford has been convicted and sentenced — is not known. In a brief meeting with this reporter, assistant U.S. attorney Eli Richardson, one of the prosecutors in the Ford case along with Paul O’Brien, would only say that there is a hearing in September and a trial date in November. The trial already has been postponed several times since Ford was indicted on December 13, 2006.

According to the indictment, Ford owned a 40 percent interest in Managed Care Services Group (MCSG). The other owners were “Individual A” and “Individual B” in the indictment, but they have since been identified as Osbie Howard, former treasurer for the city of Memphis, and Ronald Dobbins.

Howard was one of 13 character witnesses at Ford’s sentencing hearing last week. Most of them got off the stand without being challenged, but not Howard. Assistant U.S. attorney Tim DiScenza accused him of making a false statement to an FBI agent earlier this year about Ford’s income tax return. Howard took the Fifth Amendment when DiScenza tried to question him further.

According to court documents filed in Nashville, Ford earned $470,414 in 2004 and $470,938 in 2003. The indictment says Ford formed MCSG to get payments from Doral Dental and hid that fact while working as a state senator and head of a TennCare committee. As a $10,000-a-month “consultant” to UAHC, Ford allegedly sponsored legislation benefiting them and met with other state officials on their behalf.

A Nashville trial could be embarrassing to other Ford “consulting” clients and business associates, including the Oseman Insurance Agency of Memphis, the Armstrong Allen law firm, Hospice USA, Connie Matthews (the mother of two of Ford’s children), and former Shelby County Commission member Bridget Chisholm, among others. If the case goes to trial, it could clarify what local and state elected part-time officials who claim that their full-time occupation is “consultant” can and cannot do.

Ewing said one option for federal prosecutors is to move to dismiss the case, provided Ford cooperates regarding other people. Despite his hefty income, Ford has pleaded indigence and is being represented by federal public defenders. If Nashville prosecutors don’t think he has money to pay fines that might be imposed, that could influence their decision about whether to try him again, Ewing said.

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Politics Politics Feature

The Appeal of John Ford

The John Ford saga isn’t over, but some friends of the former senator would probably breathe easier if it were.

Ford plans to appeal his conviction on a federal bribery charge in the Tennessee Waltz investigation. This week he was sentenced to 66 months in prison. But the FBI’s undercover sting operation has withstood previous challenges and jury verdicts are seldom overturned, so Ford’s appeal looks like a Hail Mary pass.

But the appeal could give Ford some leverage with federal prosecutors in Nashville, where he faces a November 6th trial date on charges related to his consulting work for Tenn-Care contractors between 2001-2005.

“If I were his defense attorney, I would be going to the U.S. attorney up there and saying, ‘you all have already convicted my client and he got 66 months, so what if we dropped our appeal?'” said Hickman Ewing, former United States attorney in Memphis. “Maybe they would say that if he would plead guilty to one count they would make it concurrent to what he already got. The bottom line is how strong they think their case is. I don’t know that they have got any videotapes. If they had not had videotapes here, it would have been a lot harder case.”

The Nashville case is complicated by several other factors. Different federal prosecutors are in charge of the Memphis and Nashville offices. Ford’s Nashville indictment came 18 months after he was indicted in Tennessee Waltz and delayed the start of his Memphis trial a few months.

On top of that, there has been a change in command in Nashville this year. The United States attorney in Nashville in 2006 was Craig Morford, who is now the number-two man in the Attorney General’s office in Washington. When the indictment was announced, Morford said it revealed “an appalling willingness to violate (his) duty by using his public position for personal gain.”

Whether his successors share that hunger to prosecute is not known. In a brief meeting in Nashville this week with this reporter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eli Richardson, who is one of the prosecutors in the Nashville case along with Paul O’Brien, would only say that there is a hearing in September to discuss a motion to suppress certain evidence. He said he could not discuss the case other than to confirm the November 6th trial date — the latest in a series postponements and reschedulings since Ford was indicted in Nashville on December 13th, 2006.

In Tennessee Waltz, Ford’s “business partners” were undercover FBI agents posing as executives of E-Cycle Management. He was paid $55,000. In the Nashville case, Ford’s main business partners were Tenn-Care contractors Doral Dental and Omnicare Health Plan, which was renamed UAHC Health Plan of Tennessee. Those companies, unlike E-Cycle, are very real. And Ford was paid more than $800,000 by them over a period of nearly four years.

According to the indictment, Ford owned a 40-percent interest in Managed Care Services Group (MCSG). The other owners were “Individual A” and “Individual B” in the indictment, but they have since been identified as Osbie Howard, former treasurer for the city of Memphis, and Ronald Dobbins.

Howard, former CEO of UAHC, testified as a character witness at Ford’s sentencing hearing last week. Assistant U.S. attorney Tim DiScenza challenged his testimony about Ford’s income and accused Howard of making a false statement to an FBI agent earlier this year about Ford’s income tax return. Howard took the Fifth Amendment when DiScenza tried to question him further. Ironically, he said his current occupation is ‘consultant, which means I don’t do much.”

According to court documents filed in Nashville, Ford earned $470,414 in 2004 and $470,938 in 2003. The indictment says Ford formed MCSG to get payments from Doral Dental and hid that fact while working as a state senator and head of a Tenn-Care committee. According to the indictment, Ford had another relationship with UAHC to be a “consultant” for $10,000 a month. He allegedly sponsored legislation benefiting UAHC and its predecessor and met with other state officials on their behalf.

A Nashville trial could be embarrassing or worse to other Ford “consulting” clients and business associates. According to case documents, they included the Oseman Insurance Agency of Memphis, the Armstrong Allen law firm, Hospice USA, Unum Life Insurance, Connie Matthews (the mother of two of Ford’s children), and former Shelby County Commission member Bridget Chisholm among others.

In summary, the Nashville case cuts to the heart of John Ford’s everyday business as a consultant. If the case goes to trial, it could go a long way toward clarifying what local and state elected part-time officials who claim that their full-time occupation is “consultant” can and cannot do. If it is dismissed, consulting will continue to be a gray area.

Ford has already received what is quite possibly a political death sentence. He is 65 years old and, assuming he does not begin serving his sentence until 2008, he would be 71 or older by the time he gets out. DiScenza made a point of urging sentencing judge Daniel Breen to give Ford a long sentence so he could not stage a political comeback and commit another crime, as former Memphis City Councilman Rickey Peete did.

Ewing said one option for federal prosecutors is to move to dismiss the case, provided he cooperates regarding other people. But he did not think that federal budget considerations would weigh on that, as a front-page article in Friday’s Wall Street Journal about the U.S. Justice Department suggested. Parodying a famous credit card commercial, he said, “Additional trial, $30,000. Appeal, $15,000. Getting a corrupt public official out of office, priceless.”

Despite his former $470,000 a year income, Ford has pleaded indigence and is being represented by federal public defenders now. He was not fined or ordered to make restitution in the Tennessee Waltz case, although DiScenza suggested his state pension should be used to pay for the cost of his incarceration. In the Nashville case Ford is charged with getting more than $800,000, but if prosecutors don’t think he has the money, that could influence their decision about whether to try him again, Ewing said.

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Opinion

John Ford: 66 Months

U.S. district judge Daniel Breen sentenced John Ford Tuesday to 66 months in prison, which means the senator, now 65, will be at least 71 when he is a free man.

Harsh as it was, things could have been worse. In fact, they could still get worse for Ford, who faces separate federal charges in Nashville and has a November 6th trial date. But Ford and his friends and family appear to have helped his cause somewhat with an emotional appeal for leniency on Monday, day one of a rare two-day sentencing hearing.

Breen said the sentencing guideline range for Ford’s bribery conviction was 78 to 97 months. The judge said Ford “used and abused” his power. He was “a person of greed and avarice but also a person who assisted others.” His conduct “sends a very unfortunate message to those persons who were represented by Mr. Ford,” especially young people. The damning videotapes “reflect an arrogance that belies his concern for his constituents.” The whole thing was “a tragedy on many levels.”

Adding up all of that, and using his own judicial discretion, Breen arrived at 66 months, or slightly more than the sentence another federal judge gave Tennessee Waltz defendant Roscoe Dixon. Ford was stoic in the courtroom but appeared tearful on the elevator as he left the courthouse with his family.

John Ford was one-of-a-kind as a politician and public figure for more than 30 years, and his sentencing was no exception. It took seven hours over two days in a packed courtroom and appeared to leave Ford and members of his family emotionally drained. He gave a good account of himself and revealed a side rarely seen by reporters and most members of the public. Speaking to Breen in a soft voice that sometimes cracked, Ford asked for leniency for himself and his dependent children and said he was “ashamed” of the way he behaved on the secretly recorded tapes that convicted him.

“During the trial I was completely ashamed of myself, just completely ashamed of myself,” he said of the hours of tapes on which he swore, bragged, partied, threatened to shoot people, and took cash bribes from an undercover FBI agent. A very different Ford was on display in court this week.

The two years since the Tennessee Waltz indictments were announced in 2005 “have been the most difficult of my entire life,” he said, hesitating as he chose his words. “I don’t know how I have been able to sustain myself.”

He told Breen, “I accept the jury verdict, and I take full, total, and complete responsibility for my actions.” He apologized to the court, his family and friends, his constituents, “and particularly to my children.”

Thirteen friends and family members took the witness stand and described him as a good father of 12 children, a supportive brother, and a “go-to” legislator for 31 years.

If Ford’s own speech was deficient in some way it was perhaps too honest. He simply could not bring himself to confess a level of remorse he clearly does not feel for a conviction based on a sting operation that, however much the government protests, likely targeted him.

“Your honor, the worst thing about me is I talk too much,” Ford said. He added that his mistake was “I trusted everybody, but I should have known better. You can’t trust everybody.” One of the spectators in the courtroom was “L.C. McNeil,” the jive-talking “businessman” who made the ten $5,000 undercover payments to Ford.

Ford said that prior to Tennessee Waltz he had never been offered a bribe and never approached anyone for a payment for his legislative services. “Never ever again will I make these kind of mistakes,” he said.

That was too much for prosecutor Tim DiScenza. To the very end, he bored in on Ford as a crooked lawmaker whose only sincere regret was getting caught and convicted.

“We don’t hear about the betrayed trust of the people that voted for him or the trust of the young legislators who may have looked up to him as a role model,” he said.

DiScenza, who has a perfect conviction record in Tennessee Waltz, scoffed at the current and former lawmakers and public officials — Alvin King, Ulysses Jones, and Osbie Howard — who spoke on Ford’s behalf and blamed his problems on big talk.

“These legislators obviously don’t get it,” he said.

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News

Ford Seeks Mercy; Judge Delays Sentence Until Tuesday

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

John Ford asked a federal judge for mercy Monday but he’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out if he gets it.

Speaking for 10 minutes at the end of a nearly five-hour sentencing hearing, Ford told U.S. District Judge Daniel Breen he accepts “total responsibility” for his acts and was “ashamed” at the way he was portrayed on secret tapes during his trial.

Breen ended court shortly before 6:30 p.m. and will reconvene it at 9 a.m. Tuesday. He will give prosecutors and Ford’s attorney one more chance to speak, then he will deliver the sentence.

Thirteen friends and family members of Ford spoke on his behalf Monday. They said he is a good father and was a “go-to” legislator for 31 years.

The most dramatic moment of the day came when Ford himself spoke to Breen in a soft voice. He seemed to struggle to maintain his composure at times, but finished with a plea for mercy for his children rather than himself.

(See memphisflyer.com for full details Tuesday and this week’s print edition of the Flyer.)

–John Branston

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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

Analyzing the Ford Trial

The government “can’t just go trolling for public officials, can they?”

The answer is “absolutely not.” FBI agent Brian Burns said that from the witness stand in John Ford’s trial in response to a question from defense attorney Michael Scholl, just like he said it from the witness stand in Roscoe Dixon’s trial last year in response to a question from assistant U.S. attorney Tim Discenza.

So when the FBI and federal prosecutors set up Operation Tennessee Waltz to root out “systemic corruption” in state government in 2003, they did not target John Ford. And when Captain Quint and Matt Hooper and Chief Brody set out in that fishing boat and started chumming the waters in Jaws, they were not looking for a big shark.

Seven days into the Ford trial, the case for entrapment is as murky as the case for bribery is clear. Jurors have seen and heard tapes of 10 payoffs to Ford, totaling $55,000, in 2004 and 2005. Each one is made in the context of conversations about Ford helping undercover FBI agents posing as business executives get special legislation for E-Cycle Management. Undercover agent L.C. McNeil counts out stacks of $100 bills and passes them across a desk to Ford, who often puts them in his pocket without bothering with an envelope. Some of the videos are shot from multiple angles and are as clear and carefully analyzed as NFL football replays, with McNeil, à la Boomer Esiason, circling the money with a red marker on his computer screen.

“I can walk into a room and get more done than 10 motherfuckers,” Ford says on one tape in a typical example of the former senator’s bravado and ratiocination. Obscenity may be edited out of family newspapers but not federal trials.

The prosecution’s biggest problem is probably also Ford’s best hope: showing that it caught Ford without setting him up. In the current news climate, with the Justice Department and U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales under fire for the firing of eight federal prosecutors, possibly for political reasons, establishing that Tennessee Waltz was nonpartisan is especially important.

Here’s an overview of the trial as of Tuesday, April 17th:

Who’s on the stand? Undercover FBI agent L.C. McNeil (not his real name) has been on the stand for most of four days. He was Ford’s running buddy in 2004-2005 and taped hundreds of hours of conversations. He is the government’s key witness because he actually made the payoffs to John Ford in a way that, in hindsight, seems like a dead giveaway to an undercover sting.

“I don’t target anyone,” McNeil said in response to a question from Discenza. “My focus is to go out and conduct a fair and balanced investigation.”

In two days of cross-examination, Scholl has done everything but shout “liar liar pants on fire” in numerous efforts to get McNeil to depict acting as lying.

Who is L.C. McNeil? The short answer is undercover specialist who looks like he could kick anyone in the courtroom’s ass. The long answer is more complicated. In real life, he is 39 years old, African-American, 6’1″, 220 pounds, a former Los Angeles policeman, a graduate of Oral Roberts with a theology degree, and a former full-time minister who was still ministering last year. For some reason, the government got McNeil to divulge most of that information in the Dixon trial but only gave the Ford jury an abbreviated resume and let Scholl flesh out the details.

In his fake identity, McNeil was the single father of a son in Chicago, a music producer and investor in lucrative stock offerings, and a world traveler. On the tapes, he and Ford are partying, talking about women in language that would get a budding Don Imus in trouble, and going to sports events. But McNeil is not nearly as foul-mouthed as Ford. He calls Ford “cat” and “doctor” and almost always ends his phone conversations with “Peace.”

Does he ever slip up? It’s hard to say, but there seems to have been a close call or two. McNeil always refers to his fellow undercover FBI agent Joe Carroll (alias Joe Carson) as simply “Joe.” Inevitably, Ford says something like “who?” And McNeil says, “My partner.” But he never uses his full name, which is perhaps too easy to confuse with his real name. And his fake career in music and movies, by coincidence or design, put him in Los Angeles and New York at the same time that one of Ford’s daughters was trying to break into the business there. He even says he will contact her, but apparently he never did. Nor did Ford check him out, which might have blown the cover.

Was John Ford targeted? At some point, he obviously was, but when and how are key issues in the trial. The FBI and prosecutors had to comply with guidelines for undercover operations and get approvals from higher-ups in Washington. Given the notoriety and history of the Ford family, it seems likely that Gonzales or his predecessor were in the loop, but that has not come out in court.

The jury must decide whether Ford was “predicated” or predisposed to take a bribe or entrapped by overzealous FBI agents. That’s the reason why so much has been made of an April 2004 dinner at Morton’s Steak House in Nashville when Ford and McNeil met for the first time. Kathryn Bowers, who definitely was an early Tennessee Waltz target, arranged the dinner and E-Cycle paid for it.

“I got a brother on City Council and another brother on County Commission and I control the votes in both places,” Ford says. But he was not an eager player. In his cross-examination of McNeil, Scholl played a tape on which Ford said he was too busy to help.

“It takes five months of my time, and I just don’t have time to do it,” he says.

The next day, McNeil and Tim Willis, his undercover informant, visit Ford at his Nashville office in the legislative plaza. Ford wants to talk more about the music business, but McNeil wants to talk about E-Cycle.

“Do you think we’re in good position to do some things?” he asks.

Three months later, Ford travels to Miami to meet Willis and McNeil, supposedly for a black film festival. He gets a tour of E-Cycle’s yacht and an earful of Willis blabbing interminably on his cell phone at lunch one day. Scholl’s tapes, in contrast to the government’s tapes, present Ford as quiet and mainly interested in the music business and women.

The man who came to dinner: The government wants to start the Ford story at the dinner at Morton’s. Ford came to the dinner, apparently without a personal invitation. Other legislators did not. Bowers, like Ford, is a black Democrat from Memphis. The road through Bowers and Dixon, another early target, would logically lead to Ford.

Ford’s self-assessment as political godfather was not shared by everyone. In tapes played at Dixon’s trial, Dixon says to E-Cycle executives that “we’re all leaders in the Senate.” And Bowers says, “The Senate didn’t have no leaders.” Also, Barry Myers, a Dixon understudy who testified against him at trial, says on tape that the powerful Sidney Chism-Willie Herenton Democrats “don’t give a fuck” about the Fords.

What are the risks of the entrapment defense? It’s a chess game, and prosecutors can counter with evidence such as the Rolex watch gift from developer Rusty Hyneman to Ford to bolster their predication argument. It is still early in the trial, and Discenza likely has more witnesses and more evidence that he might not have been able to put before the jury without the entrapment defense. There has already been testimony that Ford was involved in three previous FBI investigations.

Could the bribes be construed as legitimate? The intent is as clear as the video quality. McNeil always brings the conversation around to E-Cycle legislation so there is little, if any, chance of the payment being depicted as a legitimate consulting fee. Ford, of course, drives home the nature of the payments by playing the part of the dutiful legislator in the early tapes and, in the later tapes, threatening anyone who rats him out.

So, it’s a slam-dunk case? Never. That’s for the jury to decide.

Where’s Tim Willis? In the wings. The government will have to put him on the stand to talk about the witness-intimidation charge against Ford. He will take his standard beating from the defense (this will be the third trial in which he has testified) and will be questioned sharply about his moviemaking, which could suggest that he saw the whole thing as a sort of “Tim’s Excellent Adventure” project to advance his career.

Deleted scenes: Like the dozen or so reporters in the courtroom each day, the defense and prosecution are each trying to create a storyline for an audience by selectively choosing quotations, characters, and incidents. Scholl has effectively changed the plotline for now, but his points are sometimes hard to decipher. Discenza works faster and always has his witnesses repeat what he considers to be key statements.

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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.)

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News The Fly-By

Watching the Evidence

The diamond-studded Rolex is ticking away the days until former state senator John Ford’s federal trial for bribery.

Judge Daniel Breen heard arguments for and against the admission of Ford’s Rolex wristwatch as evidence in the federal government’s bribery case against Ford in a motion hearing Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court.

The watch is an extremely rare model, with a meteorite face encircled in diamonds. Rolex values the piece at $46,800. Ford defense attorney Michael Scholl inspected the watch in court and gave Ford another look at it.

Ford openly discussed the watch during a taped conversation with undercover FBI agents during Operation Tennessee Waltz. In the conversation, Ford revealed that developer Rusty Hyneman gave him the watch after Ford saved Hyneman $1.3 million with a “big favor.” Ford estimated the value of the watch at $50,000 on the tape, claiming, “I paid zero.”

Scholl possibly previewed his defense strategy for the trial, as he focused on the boasting that his client and undercover agents engaged in during their transactions, suggesting that Ford merely talked big to impress his company.

Scholl played the court a tape of an undercover FBI agent on the case encouraging another to “have some fun [with Ford], and if we catch him, we catch him.”

The defense also played tape of Ford explaining his purchase of a Rolex to one of the agents, which calls the veracity of Ford’s “I paid zero” claim into question.

Scholl similarly depicted his client’s claim of having saved Hyneman over a million dollars in state levied fines as another case of willful inflation.

FBI agents arrested Ford on May 28, 2005, in Nashville, and seized the watch as evidence. Scholl initially charged that the confiscation was illegal.

“This is irrelevant to the trial,” Scholl commented, adding, “This is designed to confuse the jury from the real issue.”

The real issue is the indictment, and Scholl stated that “nothing in the indictment alleges anything with the watch.”

The pre-trial hearing marks the final court action prior to Ford’s trial, scheduled to commence April 9th.

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News The Fly-By

The Cheat Sheet

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Stax celebrates its 50th birthday, beginning with a big party at B.B. King’s Blues Club — uh, the one in New York City. At first, being petty, selfish types, we were kind of miffed that they didn’t begin the yearlong celebration here, but then we realized that the music that came out of that little studio on McLemore had an impact on the entire world, so we don’t mind sharing a bit of our funky soul with those uptight New Yorkers.

The city’s Environmental Court has announced a crackdown on I-240, calling it the “most littered” stretch of roadway in the city. There are so many places deserving this “honor” that we don’t know how they picked just that one. But we can remember when year after year Memphis managed to win “America’s Cleanest City” awards, so we’re happy they are going to start somewhere.

MovieMaker magazine puts Memphis on its top-10 list of Greg Cravens

cities coveted by independent filmmakers looking for the perfect combination of local talent and distinctive location. This year we are #7. We certainly deserve the honor, and — despite what we just said — don’t mind being ranked below New York City and such unique places as Las Vegas and even Albuquerque. But what was MovieMaker thinking, ranking us below Shreveport? We’ve been to Shreveport, my friends, and no matter where you go, it looks like Shreveport.

Former state senator John Ford says he can’t afford a lawyer to defend himself against the charges that he took $800,000 in bribes during the Tennessee Waltz sting. But what about that 800 grand? Can’t he use that? Oh.

An organization plans to host a Delta Fair and Music Fest at the Agricenter — at the exact same time as the Mid-South Fair. The new folks imply — if not downright accuse — the fairgrounds of being unsafe. It’s true, you know. If you eat one of those Fiddlesticks really fast, your nose can freeze.

Categories
Opinion

Another Ford Indictment

John Ford was United American Health Care’s rainmaker.

Back in 2000-2001, the Detroit-based company that manages health care for Medicaid patients was in the ditch. Its publicly traded stock (symbol: UAHC) was selling for around $1. Business was lousy. It was about to lose its management contract with the state of Michigan. Then the company found financial salvation via a lifeline to Memphis and Nashville through Ford.

Using the time-tested Memphis practices of cronyism, strong-arming the state Senate, turning low-income Ford voters into revenue-generating customers, and — according to a new federal indictment — corruption, Ford helped turn UAHC around.

By 2002, UAHC was enrolling thousands of new members, most of them coming from Tennessee’s TennCare plan. Its headquarters was still in Detroit, but its business was in Memphis and West Tennessee. Operating as OmniCare, the CEO was Ford’s friend Osbie Howard, who was city of Memphis treasurer from 1992 to 1995 under Mayor Willie Herenton and Herenton’s campaign treasurer in 1999. Another key executive was Stephanie Mebane Dowell, formerly Herenton’s administrative assistant and later legislative director for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare until 2001.

Things were rosy for a few years. The stock soared to $7 a share. Howard was earning over $300,000 a year and had 83,000 shares of stock and options on 130,000 shares. Ford was secretly collecting “consulting fees” from UAHC of $10,000 a month, totaling more than $400,000 by 2005.

But that was the year the roof caved in. Two OmniCare employees, including in-house attorney Felicia Corbin Johnson, blew the whistle on illegal acts in civil lawsuits. Federal investigations targeted Ford’s ties to OmniCare and other HMOs and, in a separate investigation, bribes he allegedly took from an FBI undercover company called E-Cycle Management.

Howard resigned, and UAHC publicly admitted he was “involved” with Ford in a partnership called Managed Care Services Group (MCSG) that was “not approved by UAHC and [was] not consistent with UAHC’s code of conduct.” The stock price plunged from $6 to $2. A few weeks later, Ford was indicted for the first time.

The new indictment, released Monday in Nashville, charges Ford with wire fraud and concealing his so-called consulting work for TennCare contractors. Howard is not mentioned by name, but the indictment refers to an “Individual B” described as “a high-level executive with UAHC, with United American of Tennessee and with OmniCare and also a 30 percent owner of MCSG.”

Howard could not be reached for comment. In the 1999 Herenton campaign, he was pleasantly low-key and accurately predicted that the mayor would get about 46 percent of the vote. Among the losing candidates was Joe Ford, John’s brother. That Herenton campaign, managed by A C Wharton, was notable for the amount of money spent — more than $800,000 — in a fairly short time in a race that was not close.

According to the indictment, John Ford, as an influential senator and a member of the TennCare Oversight Committee, was the key to the growth of OmniCare, and OmniCare was the key to the growth of United American Health Care. With Ford’s help, OmniCare enrolled more than 100,000 uninsured West Tennesseans in its managed-care network.

“After November 1, 2002, substantially all of UAHC’s revenues were derived from its ownership of, and provision of services to, OmniCare through UAHC’s wholly owned subsidiary,” the indictment says. U.S. attorney Craig Morford said it shows Ford’s “appalling willingness” to use his public position for personal gain.

Ford was scheduled to make an initial court appearance this week.

According to recent financial filings, UAHC’s business plan is basically unchanged. It plans to “grow business in Tennessee” where it has 115,000 members and relationships with 19 hospitals and 900 doctors. Dowell is chief executive officer of UAHC Health Plan, OmniCare’s successor.

For the first quarter of fiscal year 2007, UAHC had revenues of $4.2 million. Last week, four days before the indictment was unsealed, UAHC successfully completed a private placement of new shares of stock, raising $6.5 million. The stock was selling this week at slightly under $9 a share.

The other company mentioned in the latest Ford indictment is Doral Dental. Again, the parent company is conveniently based out of state (Wisconsin) where its ties to Ford were less likely to be scrutinized. Doral Tennessee had the TennCare dental contract, thanks to Ford, and allegedly paid him more than $400,000.

Whether or not they knew all the details, Ford’s senate colleagues were aware of his consulting business (he listed consulting as his occupation in the Tennessee Blue Book) and the fortunes being made in the stock market. Some were apparently envious. In secret tapes played at his bribery trial, former Senator Roscoe Dixon talks about the subtleties of steering business to certain dentists and HMOs and says “everybody got some semi-hustle.”

The whole premise of phony E-Cycle Management and Tennessee Waltz was high-rollers using lucrative state contracts to boost their revenues and credibility and make a killing in the market. And the template was real companies such as UAHC and Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America.

The Flyer erroneously reported last week that Southland Park Gaming and Racing is owned by Penn National Gaming. It is owned by Delaware North Company.