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Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Contractors didn’t have free rein, witness says
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While prosecutors presented a case that suggested contractors seeking favors from former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell had free rein at City Hall, a defense witness testified Wednesday that that was not the case.
Connie Taylor, who was a receptionist in the mayor’s office from January 1994 to 1996, in the early years of Campbell’s administration, testified that city contractors Rickey Rowe and Fred Prewittdidn’t have the free access to the mayors office. She said that when the men did come by, it was to visit mayoral aide Dewey Clark - not Campbell.
Clark has testified for the prosecution that he handed the mayor thousands of dollars in payoffs from contractors seeking to do business with the city.
On cross examination of Taylor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Phyllis Sumner, rattled off all the years Taylor wasn’t in the mayor’s office - 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 - when the prosecution alleges Rowe and Prewitt were pervasive figures at City Hall, seemingly coming and going at will.
Testimony resumes Thursday.
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Minister allowed to testify for Campbell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Prosecutors lost a battle today to keep a defense witness from testifying in former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell’s federal corruption trial.
U.S. District Judge Richard Story said it was a close call but he decided to allow Campbell’s team to bring in the Rev. O.L. Blackshear, a minister whose daughter was murdered in 1997 during an armed robbery.
Campbell used $2,000 of his campaign money to offer a reward for the arrest of the gunman who fatally shot Gwendolyn Blackshear Wyche in the back for her purse.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Vineyard agreed to stipulate the mayor funded the reward through campaign funds but said there was no need to bring the father to the stand.
It “falls into good deeds of the mayor� and could unfairly prejudice the jury, Vineyard argued.
Lead defense attorney Billy Martin, however, said Blackshear’s testimony should be allowed since prosecutors got to bring in their own prejudicial testimony attacking the mayor’s character.
“The testimony of Marion Brooks was so prejudicial,� Martin said of Campbell’s former female acquaintance who testified about expensive gifts from Campbell and trips taken with him. “We agreed on every date that was traveled, every expense that was paid� yet prosecutors still brought her to the stand, the defense attorney argued.
The judge agreed to allow the minister to testify but said, “I think it’s dangerous grounds.�
Story instructed the attorneys to avoid asking the father to describe the murder or other emotional details that could play on the sympathies of jurors.
Blackshear could testify later today.
Permalink | | Categories: Bill Campbell trial
Witness: Campbell didn’t sign water deal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A former special assistant to Bill Campbell testified that the former mayor did not sign off on a lucrative contract a water management company received after making political contributions to Campbell and funding his travels.
Eunice Lockhart-Moss told the jury Campbell never signed contract documents worth millions to United Water, a French-owned company that managed the city’s water system.
Prosecutors allege that Campbell extended United Water’s contract — worth about $80 million over the contract’s life — just days before he left office in December 2001. A handwriting expert for the prosecution testified last month that it was Campbell’s signature on contracts.
But Lockhart-Moss told jurors today that Campbell refused to sign the documents before he left office and never saw them until six months later.
Instead, she testified that DeWayne Martin, the mayor’s former chief operating officer, took the documents from her in December 2001 after Campbell had already vacated his City Hall office.
Lockhart-Moss said Martin, who often signed documents for the mayor, later told her: “I have just taken care of some people since your mayor doesn’t know how to take care of people who have helped him.�
Defense attorneys claim Martin signed the documents without Campbell’s authorization.
On Monday, the mayor’s press secretary, Zee Bradford, testified that Martin could so closely duplicate the Campbell’s signature that “we could hardly tell the difference.�
As part of the racketeering charge, prosecutors allege:
• Atlanta officials first awarded United Water a 20-year contract with an annual payment of $21.4 million in 1998. Months later, in July 1999, United Water paid $12,900 for a trip to Paris for Campbell and the mayor’s previous chief operating officer, Wilton Lawrence “Larry” Wallace. A female friend of the mayor’s met him in Paris, and the couple spent much of their time sightseeing, according to photos displayed for jurors.
• The same month, water executives and others contributed $6,900 to Campbell’s campaign even though he would not be eligible for a third term.
Defense attorneys have fought back, saying Campbell and Wallace went to Paris on business since United Water’s parent company is based there. They also defend any campaign contributions as legal donations to retire campaign debt.
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Witness doesn’t dispute $100,000 request
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the first witnesses called for the defense today in Bill Campbell’s federal corruption trial didn’t dispute that a businessman seeking a city contract was asked to pay $100,000 for the mayor’s re-election campaign. The witness said he just couldn’t recall it happening.
Campbell’s attorneys were expected to call as many as nine witnesses today as lawyers try to chip away at the federal corruption case against the former mayor.
Wesley Barnes, a civil engineer whose firm did work for the city, testified today about a meeting involving Campbell, city contractor Rickey Rowe and businessman Howard Sole, who earlier testified earlier that his company dropped efforts to land a lucrative city contract after he was urged to pay $100,000 to the mayor’s re-election campaign.
Sole, who formerly worked for Virginia-based CRS Construction, said he and another businessman met with Campbell in August 1997 to pitch a project to help fix the city’s sewer problems and allow Atlanta to avoid costly Environmental Protection Agency fines.
Campbell said he liked the proposal and thought the city could go forward with the project, which could net CRS between $15 million to $20 million, Sole testified.
Sole testified he had trouble meeting with the mayor until city contractor Ricky Rowe set up a meeting and went along. Afterward, Campbell and Rowe talked privately while Sole waited in the hall, Sole testified. When Rowe rejoined him, Sole said Rowe told him, “I’m not saying the mayor said this, but $100,000 and the contract is yours, regardless of whether he is elected.”
After he told officials of his company what had happened, they decided not to do business with Atlanta, Sole testified.
Today, Barnes, who was also familiar with the discussions, said he did not remember Rowe asking for a $100,000 bribe when questioned by defense attorney Jerry Froelich.
On cross examination, Assistant U. S. Attorney Russell Vineyard asked Barnes if he was disputing that Rowe asked for the $100,000 after the meeting with the mayor.
“No, I’m not disputing that,â€? Barnes said. “I just don’t recall it.â€?
Campbell, who was mayor from 1994 until 2002, is accused of running the city as a criminal enterprise through racketeering, taking bribes and tax evasion. He has pleaded not guilty.
In other testimony, Campbell’s former special assistant, Eunice Lockhart-Moss, talked about being hired by Campbell in 1998, after working several jobs, including doing work with the Clinton White House.
Lockhart-Moss said her main job was to keep the mayor’s calendar and schedule his appearances and appointments.
She said when Campbell hired her he told her that he wanted to keep his campaign promises and there a few key things she had to do to keep him happy.
She testified that Campbell said he didn’t want to be reading speeches on the way to giving speeches; he wanted to be on time; he wanted to have dinner with his family; and he wanted her to run the office in a “professional manner.â€?
The defense opened its case Tuesday, calling former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, and three others to the stand.
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Campbell aide to testify about speeches and fees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell’s special assistant, Eunice Lockhart-Moss, is expected to testify today as a defense witness in Campbell’s federal corruption trial.
Moss could be a central figure in the goings-on in City Hall during his administration. She scheduled Campbell’s out of town trips, his speaking engagements, and handled the fees from those speeches.
Campbell lawyers opened his defense Tuesday, calling former Atlanta Mayor and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young. Young testified that he, like Campbell, took many out of town trips as mayor and made speeches for which he was paid.
Young testified his trips were almost always for business, and many of his speeches were at colleges, as well as at conventions. He said he needed the speech income to supplement his salary as mayor.
Witnesses have testified many of Campbell’s trips were gambling junkets with girlfriends, and that he sometimes delayed reporting the income from those speeches.
Campbell praised his defense team Tuesday outside the courthouse, saying that Young’s testimony — on running a campaign, on running city hall, on dealings with city contractors — “destroyed the government’s case.”
Campbell lawyers declined to say who else they plan to call to the stand today, on the sixth of testimony in the trial.
Permalink | | Categories: Bill Campbell trial
