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Monday, January 30, 2006
Tearful witness: Payoff money passed to Campbell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A trusted aide who lived in Bill Campbell’s basement apartment and shared intimate details with the former mayor broke down several times this afternoon while testifying as a key prosecution witness.
Dewey Clark, who testified that he saw payoff cash being passed to Campbell sobbed as he described their arrangement when he became the former mayor’s special assistant.
“I said, ‘Just trust me; we’re friends,’� Clark said, burying his face in a wad of tissue. “He said. ‘I want you to go wherever I go.’ He said, ‘Just be loyal. Don’t embarrass me.’�
Clark’s testimony caused audible reactions from Campbell supporters, enough for the judge to admonish the gallery.
The judge paused testimony after a male spectator said, “This is (BS),� and stalked out of the courtroom. The man’s reaction came after Clark said, “I’m sorry but I never stopped loving him,� referring to Campbell.
“There is a line over which you cannot cross,� U.S. District Court Judge Richard Story told the crowd. “You are disrupting this trial and disturbing these jurors. And I will not have it.�
Defense attorney Jerry Froelich stood to tell the judge that Clark’s emotions were, “an act.�
Story raised his finger and told the lawyer, “Don’t interrupt me.�
Clark’s testimony was the first time a witness has testified they have seen payoffs.
Clark said that Fred Prewitt, Campbell’s friend and chairman of the city’s Civil Service Board “told me he was going to put a roll (of cash) in the mayor’s hand big enough to choke a goat.�
Clark said Prewitt passed $10,000 to Campbell while they were headed to the airport. He said Prewitt then joked to “Watch him walk all the way to the airport with his hand in his pocket.�
Clark, a Memphis native who worked on Campbell’s campaign before being hired on as an assistant, said he answered the phone and responded to constituent mail but also kept appointments for the mayor and did banking for him. He testified that he almost became a member of the Campbell family — taking out their trash, cutting grass, playing basketball against his son, even eating Thanksgiving dinner with them.
“I loved Mayor Campbell; I loved his family,â€? he said. “They treated me very well… He was very good to me.â€?
Clark testified he lived in the apartment at the Campbell home for six years until May 1999.
He is expected to be one of the key witnesses for the prosecution and to say that he passed payoffs from a nude dance club owner to the mayor.
He is also expected to be the subject of fierce cross-examination, as defense attorneys are depicting him as a liar who is making up testimony against Campbell to save his own skin from prosecution.
“This witness is totally unbelievable,� Froelich told Story as the two sides argued over his testimony outside the presence of the jury.
Clark, who earned between $26,000 and $39,000 during his time with the city said he sat 10 to 15 feet from Campbell’s office door. He is being used by prosecutors to describe Campbell’s inner circle and who had the “green light� to come and do from the former mayor’s office.
During his testimony, Clark, a stocky man with a soft, smooth voice, did not look at Campbell, who stared at him.
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Witness: Campbell took thousands of dollars in trips
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A travel agent who was a close friend of Bill Campbell told jurors today how he booked the city leader’s trips with female friends to hide it from the former Atlanta mayor’s wife and family.
Campbell would later repay the travel tabs in cash or gambling chips, Gabe Pascarella testified on Monday.
One trip, totaling $1,400, included airline tickets, theatre tickets and a phone card for Campbell and a friend, former part-time travel agent Pascarella testified.
Another trip to San Francisco included a $2,475 purchase at a lady’s boutique, Pascarella said. Some of the trips were for Campbell and TV anchor-woman Marion Brooks, Pascarella told jurors. Brooks, who once worked at WSB-TV in Atlanta and is now in Chicago, has been subpoenaed and is expected to testify.
“These were trips that he probably wouldn’t want his family to know about,” Pascarella told jurors.
Credit card records enlarged and displayed for jurors showed flights on Delta, American, AirTran, Alaska Air, Value Jet and other airlines.
Pascarella also rented a limo in College Park for the mayor.
Campbell’s wife, Sharon, was not in court today — the first time she has been absent since the trial began two weeks ago with jury selection.
Pascarella said he first met the politician when Campbell and Andrew Young came to the upscale East Lake Country Club’s tennis courts around 1980. At the time, Pascarella, who is now retired, managed the tennis courts and soon befriended Campbell. They became part of a close-knit group that included city contractor Ricky Rowe, and they played poker nearly every Friday night.
Federal prosecutors have said Campbell’s lavish lifestyle is a key reason he needed extra cash. They’ve charged him with accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors who wanted business with the city.
Pascarella told jurors about several gambling trips he and Campbell took to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Aruba, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Lake Tahoe, Tunica and others. Campbell was an “aggressive player” who often put a lot of cash on the line, his friend said. Campbell used fake names at the casinos and Pascarella sometimes referred to the then-mayor as “Bill Grande.”
The two friends also went to several boxing matches, like a $1,500 per person seat to watch Mike Tyson square off against Evander Holyfield.
Pascarella and his wife would also go on vacations with Bill and Sharon Campbell, including a sailing trip on a yacht and beach jaunts to Puerto Rico and Aruba.
On Friday, when Pascarella was expected to testify, Campbell strolled across the courtroom and hugged Pascarella’s wife and Pascarella, who was a reluctant government witness.
After the FBI first contacted Pascarella, Campbell agreed to take care of finding and paying for his attorney, who secured Pascarella an immunity deal. That same attorney has represented other friends and relatives of Campbell, he said.
When questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, Pascarella acknowledged that after he testified before the grand jury he promptly told Campbell and his defense team what prosecutors asked him and how he answered and they quickly began discussing their strategy, he told jurors.
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Campbell corruption trial resumes today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Testimony will resume today in the federal corruption trial of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.
The trial was cut short Friday after 12 jurors on their way to lunch became trapped in an elevator of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building for about 30 minutes. Two of the jurors were treated at the infirmary but were released.
Prosecutors are expected to call to the stand today a travel agent who once arranged trips for the former mayor, who served from 1994 until 2002.
Gabe Pascarella’s name surfaced in the federal investigation in 2001, a year before Campbell left office. At the time, investigators were trying to determine whether city contractors had paid for any trips Campbell had taken with former Atlanta newscaster Marion Brooks, according to people familiar with the investigation at the time.
In an interview at the time, Pascarella said it was “entirely possible� that Brooks paid him for arranging trips with Campbell after Brooks’ bank records revealed a single payment of $3,000 was paid to a Stone Mountain travel agent who sometimes arranged trips for the mayor.
Brooks, who worked for WSB-TV, left Georgia in 1997 for Chicago, where she co-anchors the 4:30 and 5 p.m. weekday newscasts for NBC affiliate WMAQ.
Permalink | | Categories: Bill Campbell trial
