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DEL.ICIO.USDefense: Witness changing tune on Campbell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A defense attorney today attacked a prosecution witness’s testimony that a contractor “bought” former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, saying the witness told a different story several years ago.
Michael Sullivan, a former director of contract compliance fired by Campbell in 1996, had earlier testified how contractor Ricky Rowe had described his relationship with the mayor.
“[Rowe] used the term when he referred to the mayor as ‘That’s my ho,’ Sullivan said earlier today during Campbell’s federal corruption trial. When a prosecutor asked Sullivan what he thought Rowe meant by the reference, Sullivan responded, “I took it that he meant he had bought the mayor, he owned the mayor.â€?
On cross-examination, defense attorney Jerry Froelich challenged Sullivan’s recollection of the conversation with Rowe, saying he had taken the contractor’s statement out of context.
Froelich said that in an interview with the FBI in September 1998, Sullivan said that Rowe called Campbell a “ho� in the context of having access to him not of having bought him off.
Froelich’s intense questioning seemed to fluster the former contract compliance officer, who was fired by Campbell after several sexual harassment complaints.
On more than a dozen occasions, Sullivan couldn’t remember information that Froelich sought. At one point, Sullivan couldn’t remember when he got married, divorced or his salary while working for the city. His responses drew snickers from the several courtroom spectators.
The prosecution is using Sullivan’s testimony to show a pattern of behavior by Campbell to become involved in the awarding of contracts to people in exchange for favors. Froelich used the cross-examinination to chip away at Sullivan’s character.
Still, Sullivan stuck by the “bought offâ€? meaning, saying “I don’t know when I said it the first time, but (Rowe) said it.”
Sullivan resigned from the city in late 1996 but he said he was paid for a year. “The mayor wanted me to fall on the sword,� he said.
After leaving the city, Sullivan went to United Water to draw up an affirmative action plan for the company trying to get a contract to run the city’s water system.
At United Water, Sullivan said he served as go between for Campbell and the company, which got a $21 million annual contract in 1998. Sullivan testified the company paid for Campbell’s Super Bowl expenses in Florida that year.
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