BingoGate: Hearing held on wiretap dismissal appeal

During a May 4, 2011 hearing before US District Judge Myron Thompson, defense lawyers complained that investigators listened to too many calls—some of which had nothing to do with the case at hand. As a result, they say all of the wiretap evidence should be thrown out.

Milton McGregor—casino owner, Colonial Bank board member and prominent Auburn booster—and eleven others were indicted last October on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, bribery and fraud in connection with a failed plan to get a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot. The plan, according to investigators, was to bribe legislators with cash and other “things of value” in order to secure their votes.

The bulk of the evidence against the alleged conspirators consists of between 12,000 and 13,000 recorded conversations that the FBI listened to as part of a court-ordered wiretapping. Last month, US Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel recommended that the wiretap evidence be presented at trial.

Defense attorneys filed briefs arguing that Capel’s Report and Recommendations be set aside and yesterday’s hearing was to allow both sides to present oral arguments.

Thompson gave no indication for when he might rule.

Since Capel’s recommendation, fellow casino owner Ronnie Gilley has pleaded guilty and is now cooperating with federal investigators. His testimony could be another key element of the government’s prosecution. He joins lobbyists Jennifer Pouncy and Jarrod Massey as the only three to agree to plea deals in exchange for their cooperation.

The complicated, historic trial is scheduled to begin June 6.

Exit question: Legal analysts tell IBCR that the chances are better than even that one or more additional plea deals will be made before a jury is seated next month. Who’s the first to blink?

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BingoGate: McGilley draws a bead on McGregor

There are many targets of opportunity in the unfolding Alabama bingo corruption case set to go to trial on June 6. But none were bigger than Milton McGregor and Ronald Gilley, the two casino owners and developers who are alleged to have assembled a network of lobbyists and set out to bribe legislators in order to get a constitutional amendment on the 2010 ballot that would have allowed electronic gambling in establishments owned, operated and/or planned by the two.

Now one of the two, Ronald Gilley, has elected to plead guilty to 11 charges in connection with the case and in the “factual basis” for his plea agreement, it’s clear that the two allies are now enemies.

A key statement in that factual basis is the following: “[This factual basis] is a summary, made for the purpose of providing the Court with a factual basis for the defendant's guilty plea to the charges against him. It does not include all of the facts known to the defendant concerning activity in which he engaged.”

In other words, when he takes the stand, Gilley will provide testimony not laid out in public court filings. The defense will have access to his proffers [information he provides to investigators and which the prosecution intends to present at trial], but a great deal of the documentation in this case has gone onto the docket under seal, preventing public access and publication by this site and the news media.

There will be high drama in the courtroom in June.

Milton McGregor is man with a long reputation for influence-peddling when it comes to gambling in the state of Alabama. In fact, he’s known for peddling influence in a host of other money-making opportunities in the state.

He once sat on the board of directors for Colonial BancGroup and served on that board’s Compensation Committee. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. A man who will stand trial about a month from now—on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and bribery—deliberated on how the employees and executives of the sixth largest bank to fail in American history would be paid. He is also known as a big time contributor to one of the two largest athletic programs in the state—Auburn University.

Gambling. Mortgage and bank fraud. College athletics. If there was money to be made in this state, Milton McGregor probably had a finger in the pie, and all three are currently under investigation. McGregor has been a busy fellow, hasn’t he?

But now, his one-time protégé has apparently turned against him, and the protégé appears to be aiming his testimony squarely at the man who helped finance his Casino Crossings “entertainment extravaganza” and put him on the map of power players in the state. But in an ancillary development, Gilley’s testimony also puts a great deal of pressure on those who worked the “McGregor side” of the two-legged conspiracy. Mssrs. Coker and Geddie are now on the clock. Do they roll on the big guy too, or do they go down with him under the blazing testimony of Gilley, Jarrod Massey and Jennifer Pouncy?

Exit question: Mr. McGregor surely has knowledge of a case or cases unrelated to the bingo case. Perhaps one or more of these represent a bigger prize for a highly politicized Department of Justice, eager to gain convictions on the banking crisis’ old white guys that nearly wrecked our economy from Fall 2007 through Summer 2009.

Wonder who that could be.

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BingoGate: Gilley cops a plea, rolling up one side of the conspiracy

News broke late yesterday afternoon that Country Crossings owner and developer Ronnie Gilley has decided to flip on the remaining defendants in USA vs. McGregor et al. He will appear in a rare, dramatic Good Friday hearing this morning before US Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel and formally enter his guilty plea.

With the agreement, the Department of Justice swiftly moved to have Gilley released from jail and into the custody of the FBI. Gilley is expected to provide Agents with evidence against the remaining defendants and will remain in their custody up to the scheduled trial date of June 6, 2011.

It is a major development in the case and it represents a potentially devastating blow to the nine defendants still remaining.

 

Gilley, along with fellow casino owner Milton McGregor, several lobbyists and lawmakers, had been charged in a multicount indictment last October, alleging fraud, bribery and conspiracy in connection with a gambling bill making its way through the 2010 Alabama legislative session.

In the original indictment and accompanying court filings, the Department of Justice alleged that Gilley, working in close concert with McGregor, conspired to bribe legislators to secure their votes on the bill. Two lobbyists working for Gilley—Jennifer Pouncey and Jarrod Massey—have already pled guilty to their roles in the conspiracy. Gilley’s flip effectively rolls up the Gilley leg of the two-sided conspiracy.

This leaves McGregor and his lobbyists—Tom Coker and Robert Geddie—at the top of the food chain in the case.

With the Court prepared to make its final ruling dismissing the motions to suppress the wiretap evidence, and with Gilley reportedly suffering miserable conditions in the local lockup, a plea deal from him isn’t shocking. In fact, the Court is most likely to dismiss every pretrial motion made by defendants, and it is becoming clear that the prosecution—which nearly bungled this case beyond repair—has seen its greatest moment of peril pass.

This is typically the point where the white flag of surrender goes up.

Exit Question:  The only side of the conspiracy holding fast is the McGregor side. Do we see one or the other of McGregor’s lobbyists blink now? One whole side of the conspiracy has been rolled up and the wiretap evidence will be heard by a jury. If there’s a deal to be had—assuming one has even been offered—who’s the first to take it?

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BingoGate: Massey released to FBI custody

As was widely expected, US Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel has released Jarrod Massey into the custody of Special Agent Keith Baker of the FBI. Having court-ordered custody of Massey allows the FBI to interview him without having a US Marshall present. The government had requested that the FBI have Massey until August.

Capel’s order grants custody until May 26.

Over the last weekend, a dizzying number of court documents were filed, including an order from District Judge Myron Thompson for a hearing held Tuesday. The large number of documents filed led some to speculate that Thompson was preparing to dismiss a significant number of counts against multiple defendants.

That speculation proved fruitless, as the hearing held Tuesday was to hear arguments on continuing the trial until a later date. Judge Thompson agreed with defendants that moving the trial to June would facilitate logistics and allow defendants more time to go over the thousands of wiretaps that form the central basis of evidence in the case.

A significant portion of the filings from the weekend consisted of government briefs in opposition to the myriad of pretrial motions filed by the defendants. Almost all of the defendants have filed motions to dismiss, motions to exclude, motions to suppress, etc. It’s standard pretrial fare, and in a case as large and complex as this, it keeps the court clerks busy.

Exit question: How many new indictments will result from Massey’s continued cooperation, and who might the targets of the expanded probe be?

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AUBurgeddon: Coker quietly files motions seeking wiretaps

Typically, the one-week period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is among the quietest of the year in legal, political and government circles. Very little of any magnitude is attempted, negotiated or accomplished because so many lawyers, clerks, magistrates and judges are taking time off to spend with their families over the holidays. In fact, very little is done the week before or after Christmas for the same reasons. It’s the holidays. Who wants to be bothered with work?

The closing days of the 2010 calendar have been different.

The day after Jarrod Massey changed his plea in a deal with the government for his testimony, Tom Coker, another of the 11 indicted in connection with the scheme to buy votes in the Alabama legislature, filed a motion to compel the government to disclose the contents of the voluminous wiretapped recordings of phone conversations between lobbyists, legislators and others involved in the scheme. The government filed its response to Coker’s motion yesterday, December 30.

The motion, and the response from the government, have gone unnoticed by the legacy media.

Coker’s motion contains the following passage:

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1. On December 1, 2010, the Government notified Coker that it was going to make available the “binders submitted to Judge Hobbs during the course of the wiretaps” made in relation to this case.

2. However, the Government also wrote that “only counsel for Mr. McGregor, Mr. Gilley, and Mr. Massey will have access to the binders for their respective client’s phone line(s), as they contain material subject to privilege assertions by those three defendants.”

3. On December 8th, Coker’s counsel requested access to the binders also. In doing so, the undersigned wrote that “[a]ccording to phone logs you produced, over 80 captured communications involved calls to/from Coker’s office or cell phone number.”

Admittedly, numerous of these communications were voice mail messages or communications with Coker’s staff but not Coker himself. Nevertheless, several captured communications involve Coker and he is therefore entitled to access to the binders.

4. Last week, on December 14th, at the hearing before this Court, the Government stated that it was refusing to provide Coker access to these binders.

5. Accordingly, having attempted in good faith to resolve this issue with the Government, counsel now is required to seek the intervention of this Court.

6. Tom Coker is an aggrieved party under the wiretap laws. Under Title III, an
aggrieved person is defined as "a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, oral
or electronic communication or a person against whom the interception was directed".

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The government does not vigorously oppose Coker’s motion, but seeks to limit Coker’s access to certain “binders” because Milton McGregor asserts privilege over some of their contents.

Recall that one of the key developments in the Cam Newton investigation was the revelation that the FBI agents looking into the pay-for-play matter were interested in a connection between the Newtons and McGregor.

In a separate but potentially related matter, sources confirm that the New York Times has one or more freelancers in the state of Alabama, filing public records requests with the courts and unnamed state institutions and interviewing several individuals with direct or background knowledge of recruiting and corruption matters.

Recall also that Massey worked for Ronnie Gilley, the developer of the Country Crossings casino in southeast Alabama. He did not work for McGregor.  McGregor employed Robert Geddie and Tom Coker. Massey’s plea does not affect McGregor’s case. But a plea deal between the government and either Geddie, Coker or both would be devastating for the former director of Colonial Bank and Auburn booster.

The big development of the weeks ahead will be whether Coker is given access to the wiretap binders (which describe the contents of the recordings, not the recordings or transcripts themselves) and whether the press—and the public—is finally made aware of the contents.

Many believe those contents could implicate one or more of the 11 indictees in the alleged pay-for-play scandal that erupted onto the national scene on November 4. Others scoff at the notion and believe these issues to be unrelated.

Stay tuned, sports fans.

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