A judge who once served as a Republican representative testified Tuesday that indicted state Sen. Harri Anne Smith initially opposed having an electronic casino in Dothan but changed her position once she became a contender in a congressional election.Former Rep. Benjamin Lewis, now a district judge in Houston County, said he and Smith met with Gov. Bob Riley and Attorney General Troy King in March 2008 in hopes of stopping developer Ronnie Gilley from building an electronic bingo casino in Houston County. On April 3, 2008, they both introduced bills to prohibit electronic bingo in the southeast Alabama county. Smith told him “she would not allow a casino to be built in her district on her watch,” Lewis testified.
But he said Smith announced about two weeks later than she was withdrawing her bill. At the time, she was seeking the Republican nomination for the 2nd Congressional District, he told the jury.
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She ended up losing the Republican runoff and endorsed the Democratic nominee, which got her booted from the Republican Party.
Smith’s attorneys say she ended up supporting the opening of Gilley’s Country Crossing’s casino in late 2009 because that’s what her constituents wanted.
She is among nine defendants being tried in federal court on charges of buying and selling votes to support pro-gambling legislation to protect the now-closed casino and other electronic bingo gambling halls.
Gilley and two of his lobbyists have pleaded guilty to offering millions in bribes and have agreed to testify for the prosecution.
Court documents filed by the prosecution say Lewis contacted the FBI because he believed Gilley made him an improper offer in early 2009. The documents say he recorded conversations with Gilley, Smith and others to aid the FBI in its investigation of Statehouse corruption.
Prosecutor Edward Kang said he plans to play two of the tapes when Lewis returns to the witness stand Wednesday.
Smith’s defense attorney, Jim Parkman, said he wants to question Lewis about how the governor sought to shut down electronic bingo casinos and then appointed Lewis to the district judgeship in June 2010 after he had helped the FBI with its case. He said it shows bias and political motive.
“He was hand-picked by the governor without considering anyone else because of his participation in this case,” Parkman told the judge.
Kang said Lewis started helping the FBI a year before anyone knew that there would be a judicial vacancy in Houston County that the governor could fill by appointment and that his taping of conversations ended shortly before the judicial vacancy occurred.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said he would rule Wednesday morning on how far the questioning can go, but he said prosecutors have questioned the political motives of the defendants.
“If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander,” the judge told prosecutors.
Lewis is the last of three current or former legislators to testify for the prosecution in the trial. Another cooperating legislator, Republican Rep. Barry Mask of Wetumpka, wrapped up his testimony Tuesday morning. He said indicted VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor promised him significant campaign contributions on Feb. 15, 2010, if he would support the pro-gambling legislation. He said two of McGregor’s lobbyists, including indicted lobbyist Bob Geddie, showed up at a campaign fundraiser that night and Geddie delivered two checks from his political action committees totaling $5,000.
The office manager for Geddie’s lobbying firm testified Wednesday that she initially recorded the PAC checks as being contributions from McGregor, but then changed the company’s records within a few days to say the checks came from two other lobbying clients.
Geddie is charged with obstruction of justice for trying to hinder the investigation by changing records. But office manager Cheryl Farrow said she changed the records to correct an error that Geddie told her to fix long before anyone was aware of an investigation.
“It was entered on the wrong account, so I entered it on the right one,” she said.
