In Alabama, 2nd Corruption Trial Ends in Acquittals
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: March 7, 2012
For the second time, federal prosecutors in Alabama have failed to convince a jury that politicians, lobbyists and a casino owner committed crimes in their failed attempt to get the State Legislature to legalize some forms of gambling.
Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser, via Associated Press
Milton McGregor, center, a casino owner, got a hug after he and five others were found not guilty of bribery in Montgomery, Ala.
Related
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In Alabama, No Verdicts of Guilty in Graft Case (August 12, 2011)
Dave Martin/Associated Press
Six defendants in the Alabama gambling trial were found not guilty today.
Six defendants, including three current or former state legislators, were found not guilty on Wednesday of a raft of corruption and bribery charges stemming from a federal investigation that exposed the often sordid backroom dealing of Alabama politics.
At the heart of the case was an argument about whether that dealing was criminal or simply the messy reality of the legislative process. Two federal juries in Montgomery, Ala., have now agreed that it was not criminal.
Nine defendants were tried last year on a longer list of charges, but that trial ended with a mix of acquittals and mistrials. Two of the defendants were found not guilty on all counts; a third was scheduled to be tried again but died of cardiovascular disease the day before jury selection was to begin.
The acquittals Wednesday seemed to put an end to a complicated tale that began several years ago as electronic bingo machines, which are nearly identical in appearance to slot machines, started proliferating around the state.
Arguing that the devices violated a state constitutional ban on gambling, the governor at the time, Bob Riley, a Republican, started an aggressive campaign to shut down small bingo parlors as well as larger casinos, like one that took in millions of dollars a year and is owned by Milton McGregor, the chief defendant and one of the state’s most generous campaign donors.
In the spring of 2010, as the Legislature considered an amendment that would have permitted and regulated some forms of gambling, word got out that federal investigators were actively looking at the lobbying efforts.
That October, 11 people were arrested and charged with taking part in a scheme whereby casino operators, working through lobbyists, would promise major political donations to lawmakers in exchange for supporting the bill. Two later pleaded guilty.
When the first trial started last summer, observers were treated to a grim picture of Alabama politics. At one point, a tape was played of several Republican lawmakers, one of whom was wearing a recording device, discussing the gambling bill in racially charged language (the person wearing the device, State Senator Scott Beason, a Republican, is now running for Congress).
Witnesses who participated in the lobbying effort and who were cooperating with the government described it as an illegal pay-for-votes scheme. But defendants argued there was no evidence of a direct quid pro quo, and, pointing to the tape, dismissed the prosecution witnesses as “political manipulators, racists and crooks.”
The first trial ended last August. The retrial, with fewer charges and fewer defendants, began last month.
“When we got to the end, there wasn’t one question in my mind, not one single question,” Joe Espy, one of Mr. McGregor’s lawyers, told reporters after the verdict. “They simply didn’t have the evidence.”
In New York The Teamsters force a merger of Local 858 with Local 707 without a vote.
Local 707's Pension Plan is in Critical Status as per the US Dep't of Labor Web Site and has next to no money in its treasury. It gets a cash infusion of compelled Union dues from Local 858 members at Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, and Local 707's President says the Lobbyists (identities and payments not disclosed) are on the job.
The President of Teamsters Local 707 is also the Deputy Village Mayor of Lindenhurst.
Bingo? Albama or New York.
Albama or New York? Perhaps we should switch and see where the politics are more appealing.
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