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DEL.ICIO.USWill Campbell testify? Decision today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Will Bill Campbell testify in his own defense?
That question may be answered this afternoon and Campbell — facing federal charges for racketeering, bribery, and tax evasion — could take the stand as early as tomorrow if the defense puts him on the stand.
U.S. District Judge Richard Story dismissed the jury around noon and asked them to return Tuesday while prosecution and defense attorneys make declarations and argue over the final defense witnesses.
Story said, with the jury out of the room, “Mr. Campbell, I will be asking you to make an election whether your are going to testify, when we return” at 2 o’clock, after the lunch break.”
Campbell has said repeatedly he wants to testify. He has never said flatly he will testify.
If Campbell does not testify, the last defense witness may be IRS Special Agent Bill Salinski, who will take the stand Tuesday morning. Then prosecutors are expected to call rebuttal witnesses. Closing arguments by both sides could be later this week.
In earlier testimony, attorney Michael Coleman testified today that his client and longtime personal friend Bill Campbell would never accept a bribe.
Coleman, who is Campbell’s personal attorney and not part of the defense team, also told jurors that the former mayor and Campbell’s campaign treasurer, Steve Labovitz, took steps to make sure campaign funds were spent appropriately.
Labovitz “was very concerned he was doing things in compliance with the law,” Coleman told jurors.
This is the seventh week of Campbell’s public corruption trial and the second week for his side to call witnesses.
Prosecutors allege that Campbell solicited bribes from city contractors, funneled the money into his campaign warchest and then misused the money to pay for gambling trips with buddies and hotel stays with girlfriends.
Campbell acknowledges there was corruption in his administration but blames a few of his underlings for abusing his trust – and his name — by soliciting and keeping the bribes themselves. He insists he is innocent.
Coleman testified that he has never known the mayor to accept a bribe from mayoral aide Dewey Clark, an admitted bagman, strip club owner Michael Childs or anyone else.
Clark and the mayor’s former secretary, Serena Skaggs, testified earlier about alleged bribes Childs gave the mayor in exchange for a liquor license to open up a new strip club Strawberries and renew the liquor license for another controversial club. Clark told jurors the mayor took the bribe, about $50,000, but later caved to political pressure to not grant the licenses.
Skaggs testified that while working at City Hall, she overheard a conversation between Clark and Campbell in the kitchen suite next to the mayor’s office.
Skaggs, a soft-spoken single mother, said she overheard Clark tell Campbell: “You know you took that boy’s [Childs’] money.” To which she said Campbell responded, “Technically, I didn’t; you did.”
Skaggs said she initially balked at talking with FBI agents for fear the mayor would fire her.
But Coleman testified Skaggs told him she never heard the conversation. “She indicated she had not overheard any argument,” Coleman said.
Coleman also was the second defense witness to testify that Campbell didn’t sign a lucrative water deal for a contractor who prosecutors claim paid off the mayor.
Prosecutors say Campbell extended the contract of United Water just days before he left office in December 2001, and then publicly denied “knowingly” signing the deal, worth about $80 million.
Prosecutors claim United Water, which had a contract to manage Atlanta’s water system, footed the $12,000 bill when Campbell took a female companion on a four-day trip to Paris in July 1999.
But defense witness Eunice Lockhart-Moss, the mayor’s special assistant, told jurors Campbell refused to sign the United Water documents before he left office in December 2001 and he never saw them until six months later.
Coleman said it was his idea to advise the mayor to say he didn’t “knowingly” sign the papers instead of issuing an outright denial.
“He was adamant he had not signed them,” the lawyer told jurors.
Coleman said he decided to play it safe in case someone slipped the contract in the mayor’s stack of papers as the mayor was preparing to leave office.
Coleman said he tried to get a copy of the United Water documents from city officials but no one could find a copy. The defense claims the mayor’s chief operating officer, DeWayne Martin, forged the mayor’s signature and didn’t leave a copy at City Hall.
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