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Thursday, February 2, 2006
FBI recording seeks to link Campbell to payoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As part of a $4.4 million contract with the city of Atlanta, Eco-Tech kicked back $400,000 to a close friend of then-mayor Bill Campbell, Eco-Tech’s head Bert Timmerman testified today.
Prewitt and the mayor had a very “close personal relationship,â€? Timmerman said, and Prewitt told him “he [Prewitt] needed funds to keep up his relationship with the mayor and the mayor’s office.â€?
Timmereman testified he was channeling money from his contracts back to Fred Prewitt who then passed it to the mayor.
This afternoon, the prosecution played an FBI tape recording of a Dec. 20, 1999, phone conversation between Timmerman and Prewitt about the kickback and the contract to provide filtration equipment for the city’s Hemphill Water Plant.
In the phone call, which Timmerman said was prompted by the FBI, he attempts to lure Prewitt into naming Campbell when referring to the $400,000. In earlier testimony, Timmerman said in conversations with Prewitt regarding the mayor he typically referred to Campbell as “the man� or “him.�
This exchange, played before the jury, is the closest the tape comes to implicating Campbell. Timmerman has told Prewitt he is strapped for cash and can’t give Prewitt any more money at the moment. He has already paid him the $400,000 for helping him obtain the $4.4 million water contract, he testified.
The reference to a “doctor bill� in the conversation, is about the $80,000 Timmerman testified that he gave Prewitt to pay for his medical expenses.
The defense successfully kept the prosecution from giving a more thorough explanation of what was happening in the phone call, including the meaning of the code language and veiled references such as the money “went the other way.”
Bert Timmerman: “Uh, and, and, and the four hu… the four hundred thousand we paid to you sort of, it sort of took my profit away. Uh, so, maybe you can get by on that for a while.�
Fred Prewitt: “And that went the other way, but yeah. Uh, and I was on the phone with him [Campbell] just, just then. Uh, he’s going up to Memphis around the time we’re going.â€?
Bert Timmerman: “Uh huh.�
Campbell was scheduled to go to Memphis, while Timmerman and Prewitt were traveling there to see about doing business with that city.
Fred Prewitt: “Um, I think our meeting [with Memphis officials] is on the 13th, isn’t it?”
Bert Timmerman: “Yeah. Yeah. We got a meeting.”
Fred Prewitt: “Yeah.”
Bert Timmerman: “…uh, I guess on the 13th. Hope, hopefully I can get some cash, cash by then, but um…â€?
Fred Prewitt: “Yeah, uh…”
Bert Timmerman: “Well, you know, may… well, did you, did you have to put all that the, the, the other way or, or do you have enough to, to live on for a little while?â€?
Fred Prewitt: “No, that’s what I did and…’cause I had promised him, you know, and (inaudible) I tell you,, I’d get dug out so much about it. Uh, I had promised, uh, I would do it that way. Uh, but, uh, you know I, I took care of my doctor bill. That’s, that off of me. I got a letter from him that everything is paid. Uh…”
Bert Timmerman: “Yeah, that’s the eighty we gave you after that.â€?
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Businessman says he bribed Campbell officials
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Businessman Bert Timmerman testified today how he bribed Atlanta officials when Bill Campbell was mayor to secure contracts with the city.
Timmerman, owner of Eco-Tech, which supplies equipment for water and sewage treatment plants, said he paid thousands to Atlanta’s former water utility manager, Thodur Bavan.
“I paid Mr. Bavan as a bribe to get him to favor equipment I was selling,� Timmerman testified.
Timmerman said he also bribed one of Campbell’s close friends, Fred Prewitt, who chaired the city’s Civil Service Board. And he gave $4,000 to the mayor’s campaign in 1996.
Timmerman secured a multi-million dollar contract to supply valves and pumps for the Hemphill Water Treatment Plant.
The businessman said he was reluctant to tell federal investigators information against Bavan and Prewitt, whom he considered friends.
“I wrestled with whether to do this,� he said.
In an unrelated case, Timmerman pleaded guilty in 1999 to bid rigging, paying a competitor $5,000 not to bid against him for a contract to supply equipment to a Cherokee County water plant. He served five years on probation and had to pay $200,000 in fines and $90,000 in restitution.
After he was sentenced, Timmerman said he decided to tell federal investigators what he knew about the Atlanta bribes so he could start anew.
He testimony is still underway and the prosecution was planning to play a wiretap recording this afternoon between Timmerman and Prewitt.
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Defense: Aide took, kept payoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill Campbell defense attorney Billy Martin chipped away at the prosecution’s bank evidence during cross examination today. Martin questioned IRS agent Bill Salinski about how thorough bank records are in determining how much cash Dewey Clark had at his disposal.
The defense claims that Clark, who testified this week that he collected thousands of dollars in cash bribes from strip club owner Michael Childs and city contractor George Greene and passed them to Campbell, did not give the money to Campbell, but kept it to himself.
At one point Martin asked Salinski about Clark’s 1997 bank records that indicated he spent $63.87 for groceries at Piggly Wiggley and $129 for dry cleaning in an entire year. Didn’t Salinski think, asked Martin, that Clark probably spent more than those figures for dry cleaning and groceries in an entire year.
Salinski said: “He probably did, but he had available cash to do it.”
To which Martin responded: “And one of the issues of this case is how much available cash he did have, isn’t it?” said Martin.
“Yes,” said Salinkski.
Martin concluded his cross:
“You are not able to tell the exact amount of cash he either skimmed or collected from Michael Childs and George Greene, are you?” Martin asked the IRS investigator.
“I don’t know exactly,” testified Salinsky.
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Judge denies 2nd request for mistrial
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The judge in the federal corruption trial of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell denied a second request from the defense for a mistrial.
The attorneys were upset about something Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said in front of jurors that implied Campbell had made statements to investigators about his gambling habits.
Yates asked IRS agent Bill Salinski: “Has Mayor Campbell made any representations concerning whether he usually won or lost in Friday night poker games?�
The agent replied: “Yes, he has.�
Defense attorneys Billy Martin and Jerry Froelich quickly objected.
Yates replied: “It’s an admission, your honor, of the defendant.�
U.S. District Judge Richard Story sided with the prosecution.
Defense attorneys first asked for a mistrial Friday after a former city councilman testified “scandals had been exposed� while Campbell was mayor.
Story denied the mistrial request from Froelich, but the judge also chided the witness, former Councilman Lee Morris, for referring to scandals during his testimony.
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Campbell may seek mistrial today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Attorneys for former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said they may ask for a mistrial this morning in his public corruption case.
They’re upset about something Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said in front of jurors that implied Campbell had made statements to investigators about his gambling habits.
Yates asked IRS agent Bill Salinski: “Has Mayor Campbell made any representations concerning whether he usually won or lost in Friday night poker games?�
The agent replied: “Yes, he has.�
Defense attorneys Billy Martin and Jerry Froelich quickly objected.
Yates replied: “It’s an admission, your honor, of the defendant.�
Campbell’s attorneys then asked to talk to the judge without the jury in the courtroom.
They’re concerned jurors will believe Campbell made statements to investigators and will question why they can’t see the statements or hear him testify.
Campbell actually never talked to investigators about his gambling habits. Instead, Yates was referring to statements at a hearing last year by his attorneys.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Story cautioned both sides to be more careful and to hash out any future controversial issues when jurors aren’t present.
“You know the danger zones, when we’re in a mine field,� the judge said. “I think this was dangerous.�
Martin said the defense team will discuss whether to ask for a mistrial and sanctions against prosecutors. The judge told both sides to be in court at 9 a.m. for a brief hearing without the jurors, who are scheduled to return at 9:30 a.m.
Defense attorneys first asked for a mistrial Friday after a former city councilman testified “scandals had been exposed� while Campbell was mayor.
Story denied the mistrial request from Froelich, but the judge also chided the witness, former Councilman Lee Morris, for referring to scandals during his testimony.
“I don’t need to have off-handed comments throw us into a mistrial situation and have to go back and start this process all over� Story said.
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