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: Geddie files a motion to compel – what could go wrong?

This can’t be good if you’re cheering for the prosecution team. Bingo defendant Robert Geddie has filed a motion to compel, and unfortunately we don’t know what he’s seeking from the government because—like so many other documents in this case—Geddie’s motion was filed under seal and is not accessible by the public.

Geddie, along with his client Milton McGregor and nine other defendants were indicted last October on charges of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to bribe Alabama legislators into supporting a proposed constitutional amendment allowing voters to approve gambling in the state.

The feds got wind of the scheme, approached an Alexandria, VA Federal Judge and received permission to tap the phones of some of the players. The bill failed in the Alabama 2010 legislative session and the Bingo 11 were rounded up months later.

Recall that back in December, there were motions filed by defendants Tom Coker, Geddie and Milton McGregor to compel the prosecution to turn over the wiretap binders and other evidence associated with the government’s electronic surveillance last spring.   Those motions led to a flurry of filings, responses and a series of hearings that only concluded earlier this month with US Magistrate Judge verbally lashing the government’s “ridiculous” handling of evidence in the case.

Recall also that the prosecution team also includes Brenda Morris, the career prosecutor who was part of the team that famously botched the Alaska Senator Ted Stevens case. That case turned on guess what? The prosecution’s mishandling of evidence.

Here we are about eight weeks away from jury selection, and the defense is filing another motion to compel. Gee… What could go wrong?

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BingoGate: Judge recommends motions to dismiss be DENIED

This is not the ruling on the wiretap admissibility, so let’s get too excited yet.

In early February, Milton McGregor and Tom Coker both filed motions to dismiss some of the charges against them. Coker wanted Count Ten dismissed, while McGregor wanted both Five and Ten dismissed. Attorneys argued that these charges—related to bribery of public officials—were duplicitous in that they lumped one or more charges of wrongdoing into a single count.

The government, in its response, concurred that the counts were duplicitous and that the proper remedy could be applied during jury instruction. The government also argued that dismissal of the charges was not supported by existing case law and urged the Court to deny the motions.

US Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel sided with the prosecution, and recommended to the District Judge that the counts should stand. District Judges rarely go against such recommendations.

McGregor, Coker and eight other defendants are scheduled to stand trial in June on charges of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and fraud in an attempt to get legislators’ approval of a bill that would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot legalizing some forms of electronic gaming.

The Court is also expected to rule on defendants’ motion to throw out the wiretaps the prosecution is basing its case on. That’s the big one…

UPDATE: Capel issued a number of recommendations today, as reported by Lance Griffin at the Dothan Eagle.

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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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