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Andrew Cuomo
Cuomo Charges Dallas Money Manager, Says NY Pension Scammers Are Part Of A "National Network"
New York AG Andrew Cuomo added a new name to the growing list of indictments in the New York Pension Fund scandal: Saul Meyer, the (youthful-looking) 38-year-old founder of the private equity fund Aldus Equity. Meyer won't be the last, Cuomo assured reporters at a press conference announcing the charges today:
"I believe we are disclosing a national network of actors who often acted in concert and did this all across the country," Mr. Cuomo said. "They collaborated, they often partnered and victimized states and taxpayers across the country. It's also an ongoing scam."We said as much yesterday, when we showed you how a key figure in the pension scandals in New Mexico and New York was a direct descendant-in-law of a key figure in a California pension scam of the nineties. And we told you about Aldus, a key name linking the New York fraud to a suspected scheme to scam the teachers' retirement fund in New Mexico and possibly other public pension funds, last week.
Aldus's usual business was advising state pension funds on private equity investments. But it went a step further in New York, using its access to the pension's billions to arrange a $375 million investment to create its own private equity fund. The idea was hatched by Hank Morris, the top adviser to former state comptroller Alan Hevesi who is charged with defrauding the pension fund in a scheme to collect phony "finder's fees." According to the indictment, Aldus paid Morris about $320,000 to secure itself a $375 million investment from the pension fund. Not bad for a private equity firm that, according to this Dallas Business Journal puff profile that ran (all of) two months ago: "started in 2003 with no clients."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Topics: Aldus Equity, All Muck is Local, Andrew Cuomo, Barrett Wissman, Bill Richardson, CalPERS, Calpers, Saul Meyer, Steve Rattner
All Muck is Local
Who's McCain Really Keeping His Distance From?
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is making himself scarce for the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual fundraising award dinner with President Bush on June 18.
The Hill speculates that McCain is attempting to distance "himself from the man he wants to replace," but as we noted yesterday there's another attendee who McCain might want to avoid.
The dinner with President Bush is part of a two-day celebration for winners of the NRCC's "Republican Congressional Medal of Distinction." Springboro, Ohio, City Councilman Michael W. Hemmert will be one of the people accepting this distinction, despite two sets of drug charges (cocaine and marijuana) for which he's currently receiving treatment in lieu of conviction.
The NRCC declined to comment when we asked if Hemmert was still invited to the event.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: Full Disclosure
Last Thursday, in Prince George's County, Maryland, a curious little drama began to unfold for Democratic state Senator Ulysses Currie.
On the morning of the 29th, the FBI raided the headquarters of Shoppers Food Warehouse (a D.C. area grocery chain). Shortly after, they showed up at Sen. Currie's house with a warrant. The FBI took boxes from Shoppers' headquarters and files from the senator's home. Apparently, Currie has been serving as a consultant for the company, and failed to mention his lobbying work to the State Ethics Commission -- even though state financial disclosure forms require "individual consulting activities" to be disclosed. Currie also participated in a vote to grant a liquor license to a Shoppers Food Warehouse in Takoma Park. Maryland state law required him to abstain from voting and publicly file a disclaimer saying why. No disclaimer was filed.
Sen. Currie, serving his fourth term in the Senate and head of the powerful Budget and Taxation Committee, seemed surprised. Though a Shoppers' spokesperson confirmed the Senator had been consulting for them, and the FBI confirmed that the raid was related to his work as a consultant, Currie said he had "no idea" what they were investigating, and that the pair of raids was the first indication of any problem: "We have a legal system. That's why we have a lawyer. Quite frankly, we don't know. That's why I'm asking the same questions of the lawyer," said Currie, who referred all questions to his lawyer: "The lawyer said I should limit my discussion with the media, with my wife, with my children, with my dog," His attorney, Dale Kelberman, declined to comment.
Shoppers Food Warehouse and the FBI are being similarly tight-lipped. The supermarket spokeswoman wouldn't explain what Currie had been doing for the company, beyond, "various consulting operations." According to a published report, Currie has received $7,500 in political contributions from Shoppers' parent company since 2004. On Friday, the Baltimore Sun, citing anonymous sources reported that the FBI was preparing to subpoena Currie's legislative records.
Through it all, Currie maintained his cool. "One, it doesn't help to be worried," Currie told reporters. "I think, two, you've got to be realistic to know they can always find something."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
Ohio AG Marc Dann Resigns
Finally. All it took was almost every Democrat in the state House supporting his impeachment and a new investigation by the state's inspector general that involved a raid of his office.
Relive the memories here.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
Reports: Dannimal Negotiating Resignation
Both The Columbus Dispatch and Cleveland Plain Dealer report that it's just a matter of time before Ohio AG Marc Dann steps down.
Apparently it wasn't the Dems impeachment filing that is driving him out, but Republicans' attempt to launch an investigation by Ohio's inspector general. He reportedly has offered to resign if Dem legislators blocked the bill: another investigation he does not need.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
Ohio Dems Impeach The Dannimal
Last week, I did a complete rundown of the incredibly sordid case of Ohio Attorney General Mark Dann (D). Democrats, though united in their desire for Dann to resign, had not quite arrived at impeachment as the solution. As one lawmaker put it, it wasn't clear if Dann's transgressions had gone beyond "being stupid."
Well, with Dann continuing to refuse to step down, Democrats have united on impeachment as the solution. This morning, they filed articles of impeachment in Ohio's House, with 42 of the 45 Dems supporting the nine counts.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: The Pretender
For the past several months, a mayoral race has been quietly unfolding on the Northern edge of Dallas County, in Carrollton, Texas. For incumbent Becky Miller, the main issues were transportation and air quality; opponent Ron Branson's was illegal immigration.
Miller was always a politician with an eccentric edge-- she rode a mustang in the 2007 Dallas Gay Pride parade. She liked young people, and she liked to party (at least, she used to). After she was elected in 2005, The Dallas Morning News wrote that Carrollton's incoming mayor spoke convincingly to teens about drugs, because she'd lived it: "'I used to be a backup singer. I sang with several different famous people,'" including Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne" she told them, and coke had been part of her rock 'n roll past.
This year, Miller seemed to be sailing to reelection. Then, Wednesday morning, the Morning News changed all that. The fight turned ugly-- and very weird.
The article revealed, in short, that Miller's tales about her past could not be corroborated. The big four knocked down by the Morning News: that Becky Miller had sung backup for Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, that she'd attended Western Kentucky University, that she was once engaged to Eagles singer-songwriter Don Henley, and that she had a brother who fought and died in the Vietnam War.
Things first began to unravel for Miller when Branson made inquiries into the story he had heard about Miller's dead brother. When things didn't quite add up, Branson questioned Miller about it, and the Morning News picked it up. Miller declared, bizarrely, that the tale had all been part of a plot to ensnare her rival:
Mrs. Miller admitted falsely telling Mr. Branson that an 18-year-old killed in Vietnam in 1968 was her brother. She said she deliberately conveyed the name of that soldier, Randolph Sampson, through a friend because she hoped Mr. Branson would use it and she could "catch him in a lie, get him to push this forward" and sue him for slander.Mr. Branson said that after learning that the Web site the wall-usa.com listed the Army private first class as a "Negro," he informed a supporter of Mrs. Miller, who is white.
Mr. Branson provided the mayor's e-mailed reply: "The information on his being Negro is obvious [sic] a mistake, and those things happen from time to time."
"I took that as verification that she was saying this was her brother," Mr. Branson said.
Mrs. Miller said she misinformed Mr. Branson "out of anger" and "bad judgment."
Of course, it doesn't help Miller's convoluted explanation that her father, Edward Sampson, told reporters that he did have a son, who was alive and living in Maryland-- and had never been in the service. First Miller put this down to Alzheimer's, but later she changed her mind again, adding that the soldier was "not my blood brother. ... My mother did not have him." Then, in a letter to the Morning News, in which she attempted to address the paper's accusations, she said enough was enough:
My personal losses during the Vietnam war are exactly that. No one should be expected to put their personal grief on public display during an election. I certainly never brought this up as an issue.
And what of Don Henley, Jackson, Linda, Bonnie, and Western Kentucky U? Don's longtime rep told the Morning News, "Don said he's never heard of her, doesn't know her, certainly was never engaged to her." The story almost comes full circle when you look back through the archive of the local paper, the Carrollton Leader, where Miller explained in a May, 2007 story on her remarkable past that she'd become a backup singer by way of her brother, who was a songwriter for the Eagles.
Western Kentucky University echoed Don's claim of total ignorance:
Mrs. Miller states on her campaign Web site that she attended Western Kentucky University. Laura Dilliha, student records specialist there, said the school has no record of her having been a student. Mrs. Miller's former husband said that he attended Western Kentucky but that Mrs. Miller did not.Mrs. Miller said Monday that she attended the school for about two months in 1968.
Ms. Dilliha said Tuesday, "Any time after two weeks, we do have a record ... unless they were dropped by the university for failure to pay."
As for the singers, it seems fitting that Jackson's great hit of the late 70s-- the very time Miller placed herself to be touring with him-- was The Pretender.
Of the various explanations Miller employed, the best was kept for Jackson and Linda. When informed that the singers didn't remember employing anyone of Miller's description, nor did they remember Miller's name (or the last names of her first two husbands), Miller responded:"Maybe I was going by a different name. Did you think about that?" At first she declined to offer what the name or names might be ("I'm not going to tell you what they are. You have to find that out."), but finally she acquiesced: Pinky. None of the singers remembered that one either. Ronstadt added that she hadn't employed any female backup singers during the period Miller said she'd toured with her.
Unfortunately for Miller, the voters of Carrolltown seem to prefer that their mayor's colorful past be verifiable. Miller, who'd been ahead by nine points in early voting, lost reelection yesterday.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: Animal House
It's hard to say exactly where all the trouble started for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann (D), because there's so much trouble.
But Dann's says he's not going anywhere. That's despite a virtually unanimous call from Ohio elected officials, including the Democratic governor, that he resign. Dann's resolve is firm. Now state lawmakers are mulling impeachment, though not everyone agrees on that course of action. As one Dem lawmaker put it, "I don't know whether we should impeach somebody for being stupid." So Dann might survive after all, the many, many very embarrassing details notwithstanding.
If you had to pinpoint the source of Dann's downfall, it would have to be Anthony Gutierrez.
Gutierrez is a heavy drinking lecher and the world's worst pickup artist. He is also an old friend of Dann's. So when Dann was elected the state's attorney general in 2006, he put his buddy Tony in charge of the AG's general services.
Dann also moved into a condo in Columbus with Gutierrez and another buddy, Leo Jennings III, who became Dann's communication director. The mens' wives did not move with them, remaining in faraway Youngstown.
And there they lived the bachelors' life without incident. Until September 10th.
That night, Gutierrez succeeded in convincing Cindy Stankoski, a 26 year-old staffer in the office, to go out drinking with him. They went to one bar, and then another, and then another. He drank Crown Royal and ordered Grey Goose vodka for her. The next step was to get her back to the condo. He bragged about the power he wielded in the AG's office and told her that his relatives back in Youngstown had Mafia ties. He rang up Dann, who urged Stankoski to come on over. They'd even get Hawaiian pizza for her. Gutierrez pushed, telling her that she'd be OK with "the big dogs." She relented.
At the condo, there was pizza and tequila. Another female staffer from the office, oddly enough, was there too. Stankoski felt awkward and very drunk. She sent a string of text messages to a friend: "im at marc dann's place..." then "pick me up" then "Girl...im in a weird situation.. iem w marc dann...." then "drunnnnk."
When she asked to lie down, Gutierrez directed her to his bedroom. She awoke several hours later to find three of her buttons on her pants undone. Gutierrez was lying besides her in his underwear.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (15)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: Who's Laughing Now?
The last time we checked in with Kwame "Busted Is What You See!" Kilpatrick, he was denying all charges, saying he'd been punished by God, and continuing to serve as Mayor of Detroit. This week brought more of the same.
On Tuesday, the full slew of the hundreds of text messages exchanged between Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Beatty were released. And Kilpatrick? To quote another American fabulist, Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
The messages, written over four months in 2002 and 2003, were originally intended to be released at the time of Kilpatrick and Beatty's trial for retaliating against city police whistleblowers in August 2007. But as we've noted before, Kilpatrick's lawyers fought hard to keep them under wraps -- all in vain, because The Detroit Free Press got their hands on them. These new messages were also released to the Press as a result of the paper's lawsuit against the City of Detroit for more information on the mayor's secret $8.4 million settlement with the whistleblowers, a key part of which was to keep the text messages private.
The text messages run the gamut of evidence from indications that Beatty and Kilpatrick had been conspiring to orchestrate the removal of the whistleblowing police officers to lots and lots of sex talk... with a lot of LOL thrown in for good measure (the Kilpatricks still maintain a house on Leslie Street, in addition to the mayor's mansion):
But he has sobered up a bit since then. Late Tuesday, during a budget plan meeting with city residents he said:
"It's unfortunate that in Detroit only, you're guilty till proven innocent," he told the group of about 100. "There's a lot of bad information being presented in front of you, and hopefully by the end of this, we'll all see things pretty clearly."Afterward, he told reporters: "I don't think that, at all, this is a smoking gun that everybody thought it would be."
And with that, everyone continues to await Kilpatrick's magical exoneration.
However, Detroit's hopes for a new mayor remain cloudy. One of the problems may be that the judge presiding over Kilpatrick's upcoming criminal trial, Ronald Giles, is a family friend and contributor to Kilpatrick's mayoral campaign. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy requested that he be removed from the case, but District Chief Judge Marylin Atkins refused to remove Giles, or any other judge.
In a nine-page decision, Atkins concluded there was no basis to remove Giles or any other judges.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy called Atkins' decisions "particularly disturbing" and "sadly incomplete."
Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: Kiss Your Career Goodbye
In the annals of local muck, lawmaker assault is a consistent subcategory. Maybe it's the pressures of the job, but this week we meet yet another: Rep. Borris Miles (D-Houston).
Miles was indicted this past Monday for two counts of deadly assault. Though many in this category could be called impulsive, few appear quite so conflicted in heart and mind as Borris Miles.
Miles was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2006. His notoriety began only four months later when he was walking through the capitol with his two children and saw a couple of paintings he found offensive. The paintings were curated by an anti-death penalty group. The first depicted a lynching, the second an electrocution with the caption "Doing God's Work." Mile's response? He took them off the walls and hid them in his office. Why Miles freaked out is not quite clear. He later said that part of the problem was that the paintings were displayed without an explanatory note, and "As a black man, I was offended on the first one, and as a Christian on the second one."
The following July, Miles shot a man who was attempting to burglarize his construction site. Miles, a former police officer, had a license for the gun, and was never charged-- he was protected by a self-defense law. A law he opposed. The New York Times reported:
In July, Mr. Miles confronted a robber at his home construction site and shot him in the leg. No charges were filed, but he said he still opposed the new law. "We have a right to defend ourselves in our home. I support that and I always will," Mr. Miles said. But the law went too far, he said, by expanding the right to use deadly force in the workplace and one's automobile.
But apparently restraint is not much of a watchword for Miles.
In December 2007, Miles had a real red letter day.
In the afternoon, he brandished a pistol while threatening Texas Southern University regent Willard Jackson and his wife during a Rockets/Mavericks game at the Toyota Center.
In the evening, he forced his way into an invitation-only party of a business rival, and threatened another husband-wife pair. First brandishing his pistol again, then telling them that he is a "thug" and a "gangster," and then forcibly kissing the wife, then her husband:
Hall (the prosecution) said his client, party host David Harris, decided to press charges after a drunken Miles shocked guests with loud, profane language, grabbed his face and planted a Godfather-style "kiss of death" on his cheeks. Harris also said Miles handed him a pistol and declared, "You don't know what I'm capable of doing."
On January 14th, Miles' lawyer said that Miles "disagrees" with the reports of the event.
However, on Wednesday, he turned himself in. He's currently out on bail, facing up to $4,000 in fines and a year in jail. Unfortunately for Miles, his political career isn't in the balance, since earlier this year he lost in the Democratic primary to the former Texas rep he beat in 2006. Since the indictment, he's managed to keep quiet and has made no statement.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: Sex and Lots and Lots of Videotape
For days, Bruce Barclay's political career hung in the balance. The Republican commissioner of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, had been accused of rape -- by a man, no less -- and the police were bearing down. Barclay's lawyer issued a strong denial ("This accusation of rape is ludicrous It will be defended forever and is wrong."). But it was clear things were looking pretty dicey. Until... vindication! Well, sort of.
On March 31st, police, investigating the allegation of rape by the 20-year old Marshall McCurdy, obtained a warrant to search Barclay's home. They didn't find evidence of rape. But they did find videotapes of hundreds of sexual encounters with men that Barclay had filmed on high-tech surveillance cameras. The cameras were hidden inside AM/FM radios, motion detectors and intercom speaker systems, among other places. There was also one at his business office.
None of the subjects were aware they were being filmed and no permission had been obtained, Barclay admitted. According to a second warrant issued on April 9th, Barclay also admitted to hiring prostitutes on a weekly basis from the now-defunct website harrisburgfratboys.com.
On April 10th, the rape charges were dropped. One of the videos found during the search showed Barclay and McCurdy engaging in apparently consensual sex. As his lawyer put it:
"It is clear in my client's private life he has made an error of judgment. What is striking is this very same lack of judgment exonerates him from a rape allegation that wasn't going anywhere."
Sadly, his vindication was his undoing. Barclay was forced to resign.
And legally, Barclay's not quite out of the woods yet-- he's still facing possible charges for privacy violations and promoting prostitution. McCurdy, however, has been charged with making false reports to law enforcement authorities and unsworn falsifications to authorities. He's up for a possible 3-year prison stint and $7,500 in fines.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (39)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: The Family Guy
Nobody expects a corruption trial to be pretty. And in Chicago, the much-anticipated trial of Tony Rezko -- political fundraiser, business man, and thorn in Barack Obama's side -- has not disappointed.
The star witness is Stewart Levine of Chicago, a former Republican Party fundraiser, former millionaire businessman, and former serious coke head (and LSD and Quaaludes and marijuana and kaetamine and crystal meth) now supposedly working for a messenger service -- though he hasn't held a 9-5 job since 1976.
In the spring of 2004, Rezko and Levine allegedly teamed up to skim money off the top of two state pension boards Levine served on (one of them a teacher's retirement fund no less). At the same time, the two also used their influence to pressure outside firms wanting to do business with the funds to give them thousands in kickbacks and bribes.
Levine flipped in 2006, making him the centerpiece of the prosecution's case, the man to describe to jurors how Rezko was "the man behind the curtain, pulling the strings" as one prosecutor put it. Rezko's lawyers, meanwhile, argue that Levine just wants to reduce his own sentence. He's hoping to get 5 and a half years for his cooperation. Must have sounded better than 30 to life.
When he rolled out the indictment against Rezko, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald proclaimed that Tony Rezko and Stuart Levine had "put the word out loud and clear: you have to pay to play in Illinois." Well, at least this much has become clear since Levine took the stand: paying to play is one thing, playing with a full deck is another one entirely.
Levine decidedly makes for a more convincing defendant than star witness. Some gems from the cross-examination:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: Busted!
"Damn that. Never busted. Busted is what you see!"
Most people would have thrown up their hands by now. But not Kwame Kilpatrick, who's never busted and seems determined to remain mayor of Detroit until that final gavel falls. He insists, despite the evidence that keeps mounting against him, that he’s still the person best suited to be mayor, because he believes with absolute certainty that he’s on a mission from God.
Handsomely dressed in dark suits and accompanied by a team of lawyers, the mayor and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, were booked and fingerprinted and posed for their mug shots last Monday, the day before their arraignment. For the apparent contradictions between their sworn testimony and the messages they texted each other on their cell phones and the unwarranted dismissal of three cops who they feared were about to disclose their illicit love affair, Kilpatrick was charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, two counts of misconduct in office and four counts of perjury.
Beatty’s seven counts were similar. She resigned in January after the incriminating text messages were published by the Detroit Free Press.
But Kilpatrick remained positive after being arraigned on Tuesday. “I look forward to complete exoneration,” he said.
He appears to face an uphill battle. In her news conference announcing the charges against the mayor, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy accused him of ruining the lives of three former police officers and then buying their silence with $8.4 million of the taxpayers’ money in a secret legal agreement.
“[T]he justice system was severely mocked, and the public trust trampled on,” she said. Worthy scolded Kilpatrick, 37, as one would a wayward child:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
Kilpatrick: Bring It On
Anybody who's watched Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for any period of time won't be surprised at his reaction to today's indictment.
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All Muck is Local
Prosecutor Charges Detroit Mayor with Perjury
Let this be a lesson to all politicians everywhere: if you're going to carry on an affair, do not do it via text messages over government-issued cell phones. And then don't deny the affair under oath.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, an All Muck Is Local threepeat (here, here and here), will forever be a shining example.
And just now, the local prosecutor unveiled a 12-count indictment against the sitting mayor and his former chief of staff. Kilpatrick is due to make a statement later this morning. Something tells me that God doesn't want him to step down. After all, in the immortal words of Kilpatrick, "Damn that. Never busted. Busted is what you see!"
Update: Here's more detail on that indictment from the AP.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: Cleaning House
Called to a special session last Thursday, the General Assembly of North Carolina took little more than an hour to expel eight-term Democratic Rep. Thomas Wright from the state legislature. With all but five members in attendance, a stunning majority of the House agreed 109-5 that the allegations of ethical misconduct— hiding or mishandling $340,000 in loans and campaign funds— warranted the first removal of a member since 1880. Despite speculation that the Legislative Black Caucus, which includes 20 Democrats, would back their former chairman, the vote to expel handily exceeded the required two-thirds majority of 80. As soon as the vote was concluded, the House sergeants-at-arms wasted no time in escorting Wright out the door.
The chairman of the ethics committee, Rep. Rick Glazier (D), told the assembled lawmakers that in the past eight years Wright had filed 22 erroneous campaign finance reports that he never bothered to correct.
“Forty percent of the dollars Representative Wright received for seven years was not reported," Glazier said. "In the end, there is nary a substantive [campaign reporting law] in the statutes that was not violated repeatedly by Representative Wright.”
According to the AP, the bipartisan ethics committee found that “Wright failed to properly disclose $180,000 in campaign contributions, deposited $8,900 of charitable donations into his personal bank account, and persuaded a state official to write a bogus letter about a state grant that, according to testimony, Wright used to take out a bank loan for a foundation he led.”
Wright could be re-elected and reclaim his seat so long as he’s not convicted of a felony in his criminal trial, which begins on March 31. Wright decided not to counter the charges made against him by the House ethics committee in order not to compromise his defense in court, where he plans to contest not only the charges of fraud and obstruction of justice, but also his expulsion.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: Cloak and Dumber
No one can say that Texas Republican staffer Todd Gallaher didn't give 110 percent. Unfortunately for Gallaher, however, his efforts weren’t appreciated.
Last Monday he was forced to resign from his post on the staff of state Sen. Bob Deuell (R-TX) because of the uproar caused by his scheming. And on Friday the Texas attorney general’s office confirmed that Aransas County Sheriff Mark Gilliam filed a complaint claiming that Gallaher was behind the smear campaign against him in the March 4 Republican primary.
Gilliam, the incumbent, was running against County Constable Bill Mills. The sheriff says he received e-mails before the election threatening him to “back off” or be publicly humiliated.
Subsequently, the voters of Aransas County received pictures of Gilliam carousing shirtless at a party, mooning the guests and pretending to kiss a man.
The pictures were authentic, if 18 years old, but the sender’s e-mail address, repjuangarcia@hotmail.com, was clearly deceptive. The voters assumed it belonged to Democratic state Rep. Juan Garcia, whose district includes Aransas County. When Garcia learned of the e-mails from callers who had received them, his IT staff tracked them down from the Capitol to Sen. Deuell’s office to Gallaher’s state computer. (Gilliam also traced the e-mails he received to Deuell’s office.)
But Gallaher denies the charge that he posed as Garcia. He was using an identity he created long ago, a “super hero-like caricature” he named “Republican Jaun Garcia” [sic], he says. Though Gallaher has produced sketches of the cartoon character from the 90s, showing that the name is “Jaun” and not “Juan,” the name was spelled correctly in the e-mail address.
And it appears that Gallaher was not working pro bono. An examination of campaign finance records revealed that Mills, Gilliam’s successful opponent, paid between $17,000 and $11,000 (accounts vary) to a political consultant in Austin whose address is Gallaher’s post office box.
Gilliam isn’t contesting his loss in the primary, but he’s charging Gallaher with using state property with the intent of “harming or defrauding another,” a criminal offense under the Texas Penal Code. “This is an allegation of blackmail and of serious criminal acts,” he said.
Gallaher’s troubles don’t end there.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: It's Good To Be Mayor -- And Even Better To Know Him
Charged with corruption, fraud and conspiracy, Sharpe James (D) allegedly greased the way for co-defendant Tamika Riley to buy nine city lots. James, 72, and Riley, 38, don't deny having had an extra-marital affair. Riley, a publicist who once owned a boutique, turned the properties she purchased from the city around quickly, making a nice return of $665,000 on her investment of $46,000. In the most extreme case, after she bought a lot for $2,000 in August, 2001, she sold it less than four months later for $130,000. Riley is charged with tax evasion, in addition to fraud and conspiracy.
In his testimony, former housing director Basil Franklin reminded the jury about the redevelopment program for the South Ward, a depressed area of the city. When the Newark City Council approved the plan in 1998, it made no stipulation for advertising the program or public bidding.
According to Franklin, qualified builders were able to buy land for as little as $1 a square foot. But it didn't take long for the program to fall apart, as who you knew, not what you knew, became the only qualification.
"There was no professional or legal vetting of anybody," Franklin said. Instead, builders had to be recommended by members of the City Council and the mayor's circle.
Riley's purchases of city property were approved by the City Council even though some of the applications lacked the necessary paperwork, such as project proposals, preliminary site plans, estimated total development costs or arrangements for financing.
Laying the ground for their charge that James did favors for his mistress at city expense, prosecutors called several of the former mayor's bodyguards to testify about the services they performed for Riley. One of them, Adelino Benavente, haltingly recalled being authorized by the mayor to pay $409.47 for an air conditioner, pick up and install it for Riley at her home.
James didn't limit his favors to his girlfriends.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: On A Mission from God
Facing the very real possibilities of removal from office, conviction of perjury, disbarment and imprisonment, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick remains confident that he’s “the best person for the job.”
In 2001, then-state Democratic House floor leader Kwame Kilpatrick told an interviewer that he was on a mission from God. The MetroTimes reported that Kilpatrick believed “the Almighty intends for him to become mayor of Detroit, where he hopes to lead the city into the promised land of prosperity.”
He became mayor of Detroit. But the mission now seems FUBAR. As all the world now knows, Kilpatrick lied under oath in order to cover up an extra-marital affair (and that's only the half of it).
At their meeting next Tuesday, the Detroit City Council will consider calling for Kilpatrick’s resignation. Their independent attorney, Bill Goodman, is studying the law to determine whether the council may evict the mayor if he hasn’t been convicted as a felon.
But the governor may remove any elected official accused in a sworn statement of official misconduct or willful neglect of duty. Last Thursday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm urged the council to resolve the scandal as quickly as possible.
“None of this is good for the city or for the state," she said. "There is no way you can spin any of this to be positive."
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All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: Earning Votes and Stripes in Milwaukee
In an election season when the electorate is passionately debating the relative merits of change, experience and straight talk, Milwaukee’s 6th District gave their one-term alderman, Michael McGee, a plurality of their votes in a 9-candidate race last Tuesday. He will face Milele Coggs in the aldermanic runoff in April.
What’s so unusual?
McGee is running his re-election campaign from his jail cell. He was arrested last May, and is still behind bars. Charged with 12 counts of election fraud, bribery and contempt in the state court and nine federal counts, which include bribery and extortion, he faces a theoretical, though unlikely, 115-year sentence if convicted of all the felonies. Though he posted bond on the state charges, the judge in the federal court is holding McGee without bail because he was allegedly intimidating witnesses even from prison in order to influence their testimony. McGee could take office from jail if elected, because his trial dates are after this April’s runoff. If convicted as a felon, he would be removed from office.
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All Muck Is Local: Motown Throwdown
Motown just keeps on giving -- to journalists, if not to its citizens, who now are on the hook for $9 million and counting, thanks to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s futile determination to keep his office affair from going public.
With the scandal still raging, the city council is clearly on edge. All we know for sure about last Wednesday’s city pension board meeting is that two of its members had to be restrained. But as for who was assaulting whom... both sides have their witnesses. The Detroit papers have been straining to keep up.
According to Sheila Kneeshaw, a trustee on the board, City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers came late to the meeting and took umbrage at mayoral assistant DeDan Milton’s refusal to consider an issue that had been discussed before her arrival.
"There was threats made. There was vulgar language," Kneeshaw said. "And it wasn't DeDan Milton's fault. [Conyers] was ranting and raving."
David Clark, chair of Detroit's General Retirement System, agreed.
"She ran at him," Clark said. "She told him she would get a gun if she had to and that she has four brothers and they would whup his a-- if she asked them." (Apparently Clark did not recall Conyers's mentioning whether her husband, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), would participate in the ass whuppin'.)
Another witness saw it differently.
Sam Riddle, Conyers’s chief of staff, asserted that Conyers, not Milton, was the victim. She was reacting to Milton’s profanity.
"Monica is no shrinking violet," Riddle said. "He starts yelling at her. She responds aggressively and in street lingo. It was on."
Milton filed a police report the following day in which he charged that Conyers "threatened to shoot [Milton] with her gun" and made "several aggressive movements" toward him "in a threatening manner." The report said that Conyers also threatened to "have my brothers [mess] you up."
It's not clear what the charged crime would be. Apparently the police filed it under "harassing communications."
Riddle claims that Conyers never threatened to shoot Milton.
"What she said was: 'I've got a bigger gun than your gun, my husband,'" Riddle said. "She was talking about a political gun." So apparently the Chairman was invoked.
Conyers responded to Milton's report by filing a police report of her own a few hours after he did. In it she accused him of being the aggressor. But she also reported that the two had made up in a back room before the meeting was over.
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All Muck Is Local: D.C. Data Disposal
It was still dark last Wednesday morning when the cleaning crews pulled into the alley behind a Washington, D.C., mall, but not so dark that they didn’t notice some unusual items left for them to pick up with the rest of the trash. The two 3-foot-high servers were clearly labeled “PROPERTY OF D.C. OFFICE OF TAX AND REVENUE.”
Now, who puts a server out on the street? More to the point, who would dump servers belonging to an agency that’s in the midst of a federal investigation of what’s described as the biggest corruption scandal in the city’s history? (See our artful rendering of what it might have looked like above.)
The garbage collectors notified Melvin Barnes, the building maintenance man.
“At first, I was thinking, ‘Man, who's putting this stuff here?’” said Barnes. “But when I saw the labels of the tax office, with all this stuff going on, I was like, ‘Uh oh.’”
“All this stuff”—the alleged embezzlement of at least $20 million in a money-laundering scheme and its investigation— has been front-page news in Washington for months. Two employees of the city tax office are among the ten people who’ve been arrested in connection with the scandal.
The former supervisor of the tax office, Harriette Walters, has been charged with approving hundreds of fraudulent property tax refund checks made out to to phony companies and handing them over to a group of her relatives and friends. She allegedly instructed her co-conspirators to cash the checks at a Baltimore branch of Bank of America, where Walter Jones, the former assistant bank manager of the branch, would accept them. In one month alone, three bogus checks totaling $1.1 million were cashed through Bank of America. Jones was arrested last December.
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All Muck is Local
Sex, Lies and Investigations
How do you hold on to office after a sex and perjury scandal goes kablooey?
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick seems to be a believer in the say you're real sorry and hope no other damning revelations emerge strategy. But that hasn't been working so well, as the scandal seems to have spurred new curiosity about the past. And the past hasn't disappointed.
Last Wednesday night he, accompanied by his wife, gave a live radio and TV address to the city from a room in his church with no audience or press allowed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing for “the embarrassment and disappointment the events of the past few days have caused you.”
Kilpatrick spoke about his personal trials and the suffering of his family, but said nary a word about the $9 million that his attempt to cover up his affair cost the city. He did, however, promise to continue “in charge of the city…. I would never quit on you.”
Despite his heartfelt contrition, the Wayne County Prosecutor, Kym Worthy, on Friday began an investigation into possible criminal charges against Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff/mistress Christine Beatty.
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All Muck is Local
Sex, Lies, and Text Messages
On Thursday morning, Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty -- and all of Detroit, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press -- woke up to find the irrefutable evidence of the love affair they had both denied under oath:
Beatty asked the mayor, on Sept. 12, 2002, if she could "come and lay down in your room until you get back?"The next morning Kilpatrick, referring to his bodyguards, wrote: "They were right outside the door. They had to have heard everything."
Beatty replied: "So we are officially busted!"
"Damn that," Kilpatrick responded. "Never busted. Busted is what you see!"
Worse than the humiliation and embarrassment at the very public disclosure of both their affair and the unraveled coverup, is, yes, the real possibility of getting "busted" on a perjury charge, a felony. If charged and convicted, Kilpatrick, a lawyer, could be disbarred, would be removed from office, and could even face up to 15 years of jail time. Beatty, a law student, would have to find a new career.
The other big loser in this tawdry affair is the city of Detroit.
The mayor has cost Detroit taxpayers more than $9 million to date, because he was sued as a public official. Many are calling for the resignation of “a mayor with so much potential squandered on the keyboard,” a “talented” and “charismatic ” politician - “so knowledgeable on policy, so lacking in discipline.”
It all started back in April 2003 when one of the mayor’s bodyguards, Harold Nelthrope, blew the whistle on two of the cops on the mayor’s security detail; they were fraudently padding their expenses, wrecking city cars and drinking and partying while on duty. Nelthrope also passed along rumors about a bash at the mayor's residence involving a stripper. Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown began to investigate. Two weeks later, he was out of a job.
Three weeks later, Brown and Nelthrope sued the mayor and the city, claiming they were fired in retaliation for investigating the mayor’s security team. Later that year, another bodyguard, Walt Harris, sued the city and the mayor, making the same charges as the other two. He also alleged that the mayor retaliated against him because he reported that the mayor was cheating on his wife with Beatty and several other women.
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All Muck is Local: The Runaway Jury vs. The Do-Nothing D.A.
They say everything is bigger in Texas. And sure enough, if you've ever seen a bigger legal mess than the case of Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina, we'd love to hear about it.
Last June, the Medinas' house burned down in a fire that spread to two other houses, causing a total of about $900,000 in damages. Investigators suspected arson when they found an accelerant in the Medinas’ garage where the fire started. And the discovery that the house had been in foreclosure a year earlier deepened their suspicion. Medina and his wife gave conflicting accounts of the judge’s whereabouts at the time of the fire.
So Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal (R) duly convened a grand jury to examine the evidence. After deliberating three months past the scheduled end of its term, the jurors told prosecutor Vic Wisner on Thursday to prepare the indictments.
Wisner refused.
According to jury foreman Bob Ryan, “He slammed the door and left.” Later, Wisner thought better of that and agreed to prepare the indictments.
Medina was charged with tampering with or falsifying evidence, and his wife with arson, both felonies. Arson carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; tampering with an investigation, a maximum of 10 years. They were set free on bail—$20,000 for Mrs. Medina and $5,000 for the judge.
The next day, Rosenthal dismissed the charges.
Ryan, who’s served as foreman on grand juries at least four times, was not happy: “This is ludicrous.... Mr. Rosenthal never put his head in the door and heard one word of testimony.”
Both Ryan and the assistant foreman, Jeffrey Dorrell, alleged that the jury was given to understand, before hearing any evidence, that the case had no merit.
“It was theater of the absurd,” observed Dorrell. "We knew before we handed the indictment down that the district attorney was going to refuse to prosecute, but we did it anyway.”
Ryan is considering reconvening the grand jury next week.
To add to the mess, the two have risked breaking a law that mandates the secrecy of grand jury proceedings; both say they haven't actually crossed the line.
But late Friday, Medina’s attorney, Terry Yates, filed a motion asking for a hearing to determine whether Ryan and Dorrell acted illegally. (If held in contempt, the pair could be fined $500 and given 30 days in jail.)
Yates accused them of indicting Medina in order to embarrass Rosenthal: “They've made a mockery of the entire process... This is crazy. This is mind-boggling, what this grand jury has done. This is more than a runaway grand jury. This is a grand jury speeding away in a Lamborghini.”
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All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: All The Governor's Men
One might say that Scott Eckersley did his job too well.
As deputy counsel to Governor Matt Blunt (R) of Missouri, Eckersley gave the governor and his staff impeccable legal advice. According to the lawsuit Eckersley filed against Blunt and other administration members, he told them they were violating Blunt's own written instructions, document retention policy and Missouri's Sunshine Law by deleting all their emails.
Since the governor and his pals were deleting emails to preclude the scandal that would likely hit them if they became public, Eckersley's advice was unwelcome, and since he was in charge of complying with the state's freedom of information law, he became inconvenient, to say the least. Ed Martin, Blunt's chief of staff, fired Scott Eckersley on September 28.
Things went downhill from there, according to Eckersley's suit. Shortly afterwards, aware of the threat posed by a resentful employee who felt he had been wrongfully dismissed, Blunt and his aides took the offensive by sending to newspapers packets insinuating that (among other things) Eckersley was interested in kinky sex and drugs. Eckersley asserted that the governor's staff had gone into his personal email account and sent unopened spam to bolster their defamatory claims.
In late October, Eckersley announced that he'd been fired in retaliation for objecting to the illegal activities of the governor and his aides. Blunt (son of House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)) denied the charge and told reporters that Eckersley was fired because he was habitually late and did private work on government time. Eckersley countered that he had been repeatedly praised for his work.
Kindling this mucky firestorm is the gubernatorial election this fall. Republican Gov. Blunt expects to face Democratic Jay Nixon, the attorney general of Missouri.
That rivalry underlies Eckersley's whole case.
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All Muck is Local
All Muck Is Local: What's the Matter With Kansas?
Last year ex-GOPer Paul Morrison decided he'd rather party with the Democrats if it meant he could defeat his arch-nemesis in the Kansas attorney general election. After his party switch, Morrison was elected Kansas attorney general but last week a torrid sex-and-politics scandal caused him to announce his resignation, effective January 31, 2008.
Name sound familiar? A few weeks ago we wrote about how the former Kansas Attorney General, Phill Kline, had been skipping work and living outside of the county he was supposed to be prosecutor for. Sprinkled throughout the story were mentions of Kline's political rival Paul Morrison, who had essentially switched jobs with Kline, stepping up to Attorney General and leaving the post of Johnson County District Attorney.
Now Morrison's in the muck. It started with a quickie at the courthouse with a female employee of his office. Many more quickies followed, in county offices and motels throughout Kansas and in at least three other states, in what became a two-year long extramarital affair between Morrison and Linda Carter, the longtime Johnson County District Attorney's Office director of administration.
Morrison won the attorney general election in August 2006, one year after the couple's first tryst. In December 2006, he bought her a $16,000 engagement ring, although they were both still married. Around the same time, Phill Kline became Johnson County District Attorney, and Carter's new boss.
By November 2007, the illicit romance had seriously soured. Carter filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on November 8, resigning three weeks later. (She wasn't the first person to accuse Morrison of indiscretion -- a different female employee of the Johnson County's DA's office filed two lawsuits accusing him of inappropriate conduct fifteen years ago, but dropped them.)
Amid the sexual harassment claims, the suit alleges that Morrison tried to have his girlfriend spy on the enemy. Carter retained her position in the DA's office when Kline came in to head it, and her suit says Morrison tried to have her snoop into Kline's ongoing criminal investigation of Planned Parenthood, and regularly questioned her about its progress. She also says Morrison repeatedly tried to coerce her into advocating for the eight former Morrison colleagues who Kline fired. Then, when the relationship began to fall apart, Morrison called her 22 times in one day, threatening to ruin her career.
Morrison has admitted to the affair but denies the allegations in Carter's lawsuit. He has said that Carter and Kline are trying to smear him for their own benefit.
Carter's statements portray Morrison as a man haunted by the twin obsessions of love and hate.
Consumed by passion:
...According to Carter's statement, Morrison also made five back-to-back telephone calls from Lenexa to her at about 4 a.m. In part, Morrison wanted to know whether Carter had obtained a tattoo to demonstrate her commitment to him. She hadn't, her statement said, despite Morrison's acquisition of a tattoo.
Yet possessed by loathing:
In the twilight of their extramarital affair, Linda Carter urged Paul Morrison to let her go, repair his shattered marriage and resolve his hatred of Phill Kline.If not, Carter said, Morrison's life would remain a powder keg. A destructive fireball, when eventually triggered, would consume all in his wake: wife, children, friends, colleagues — even Carter.
It appears her prediction that Morrison's "hatred of Kline was going to destroy" him may be coming true. Kline has secured the power to handpick the special prosecutor who will investigation Morrison.
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All Muck is Local: Help Wanted
Ramona Cunningham's job was to help unemployed Iowans. Instead, she and other executives of the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium (CIETC) are charged with stealing millions of taxpayer dollars targeted toward the effort. That may seem an egregious crime. But really, who better to teach wayward job seekers how to seize opportunity when it comes?
Cunningham was the chief executive officer at CIETC, a non-profit that used to be the primary state-funded job training organization in central Iowa. During its heyday, it ran on millions in federal, state, and local grants. But a state audit in the spring of 2006 revealed that between $1.3 and $1.8 million in taxpayer funds designated to train unemployed Central Iowans were instead used to inflate the salaries and bonuses of the three top CIETC executives. Cunningham's salary during the 30 months that public money was being pilfered was $795,384, three times that of Iowa's governor. Four CIETC officials were indicted and two have pleaded guilty.
Besides dipping into public funds, Cunningham went on trips to casinos across the state with favored CIETC employees who drank and gambled during business hours, time they claimed to be working. CIETC workers also skipped all or part of out-of-town training conferences to gamble in Las Vegas, Reno, St. Louis and Kansas City. All of those activities took place during times when government paperwork showed that the employees were working. One employee, who prosecutors characterized as Cunningham’s favorite, made more than 100 workday gambling trips between 2003 and early 2006 (if his co-workers who testified are to be believed). Victor Scaglione said he felt that the trips were kosher because he felt compelled by Cunningham to participate (and don't good employees always listen to management?). He will serve 16 months in a halfway house and home confinement for lying to the grand jury during its investigation of the misused funds.
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All Muck is Local: The Case of the Missing DA
Last week a few national blogs picked up KCTV-5's investigation of Johnson County, Kansas District Attorney and anti-abortion crusader extraordinaire Phill Kline. Kline was Kansas Attorney General until voters ousted him in December of 2006 in favor of former Johnson County DA Paul Morrison, who became a Democrat in order to run against Kline. After Kline lost, the state GOP appointed him to fill Morrison's shoes in Johnson County, a district where he was highly unpopular, in a decision party officials now regret. The two men, Morrison and Kline -- whose destinies are clearly intertwined -- effectively switched jobs.
And how is Kline performing in his new position, which nets him $143,000 a year?
KCTV reported that Kline only spends 29 hours a week in his office, frequently only for a few hours a day, which other Kansas DAs said falls far short of the time necessary to do the job. And the news channel also says Kline's legal residence in Johnson County is a sham -- he rents a crumby apartment above a storage facility at $400 a month, while keeping his Topeka dwelling. KCTV reporters watched the Johnson County apartment for "weeks," with no sign of Kline.
In a rebuttal, Kline's spokesman said that the reporters would have seen Kline leaving his apartment "if they woke up a little earlier to catch him when he leaves for work" and reminded people "that the DA job is not strictly confined to the four walls of the DA office."
So where was Kline while he was at not-work and not-Johnson County? There is some speculation that he was devoting time to his favorite cause.
If you feel like you've read the name "Phill" spelled with two L's somewhere before, it was probably connected to the anti-abortion crusade. Kline's obsession with the issue has made him a darling of the pro-lifers. His critics say he put his energy into campaigning with pro-life groups. And while on the job, he's stayed true to the same aim, filing a 107-count criminal complaint against Planned Parenthood. The complaint is interesting because 1) Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against him first, and 2) his foil, current AG Paul Morrison, had decided not to file charges against Planned Parenthood after conducting what he called a "thorough" investigation of allegations Kline made while he was Kansas AG.
But it gets muckier.
Kline must subscribe to the same podcast as Alberto Gonzales or something, because he fired eight attorneys in his office without reason on his first day as Johnson County DA in January. Now those attorneys are suing him, and the judge has not been ruling in his favor. The fired attorneys say Kline axed them because they had no political loyalty to him. Kline says he can ax whoever he wants. Sound familiar?
Whatta guy. Too bad he's said he's not seeking re-election. Maybe he's tired of living in his $400/mo. storage closet.
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All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: Illinois' Governor Tradition Continues
Ah, Illinois. Only this Wednesday ex-Governor George Ryan (R-IL) became prisoner 16627-424, convicted of racketeering charges in April. Now, the feds are looking closely at Rod Blagojevich (D-IL), who ran his campaign on the promise of cleaning up what Ryan left behind. With several recent indictments of the governor's political fundraisers, the feds have been closing the vise. The most troubling tie for Blagojevich these days is the relationship connecting him, his wife Patti, and Tony Rezko.
Rezko has been a longtime supporter of the Blagojevichs; The Chicago Tribune reported in 2005 that Rezko and Patti Blagojevich had a business relationship tracing back as early as 1997. In 2003, real estate deals with Rezko accounted for roughly one-quarter of Patti’s income (they have ceased their business deals since 2004). He also demonstrated what might generously be called a knack for getting friends appointed to state board positions.
But Rezko was indicted on extortion charges in 2006. And though the Governor has not been named by investigators, there is this revelation by the Associated Press:
But Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Blagojevich political confidant and friend, is under indictment, accused of seeking campaign contributions from investment companies in exchange for getting them business with a state pension fund.In one case, the indictment claims Rezko demanded a company make a $1.5 million contribution to "a certain public official." That was Blagojevich, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is continuing.
Rezko has so far not turned state’s evidence, but with a trial coming up in February, Blagojevich might very well have reason to be nervous.
Of course, if Rezko doesn’t float your boat, there are other investigations that might sink the governor.
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All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: The Ballad of Ricky Headley
The long arm of the law is just a little too short to push Sheriff Ricky Headley from office.
A grand jury recently indicted Headley on thirty-seven drug related charges, among them twenty-one felony counts that include dispensing drugs illegally and official misconduct. That's an increase from the original indictment, which included just two counts of wearing his uniform and driving his official vehicle while illegally obtaining prescription meds. Ricky, the sheriff for Williamson County, Tennessee, is facing expulsion from his job if found guilty of a felony; his trial is set for next July.
Until then, Ricky is sitting tight as sheriff. And, much to the chagrin of locals, there's nothing anyone can do about it. In almost every case of police abuse, the accused officer is put on leave pending a resolution of his case. That would be true even for Ricky's deputies, but not Ricky himself. As an elected official, no one can make Ricky do anything (with the exception of the state attorney general, who has not signaled an interest in the case). Local officials can't force him to step down, nor can they require him to take leave from his position. They can't even take away the car in which he allegedly made his drug runs.
Ricky has pleaded not guilty on all charges and says he intends to serve out the rest of his term (until 2010). And since he is all cleaned up (Ricky spent less than a month in rehab for his addiction to prescription drugs), he sees no reason not to be back out there enforcing the law. And so far, it doesn't look like he's going to change his tune.
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All Muck is Local: Iowa
Thanks to Alberto Gonzales, it will be a long time for the Justice Department before prosecutors can pursue a Democrat without suspicion. The case against State Senator Matt McCoy (D-IA) is another one of those prosecutions now mediated through the lens of the politicization of the Department.
Matt McCoy was indicted last March on one count of extortion, and he is set for trial next week. McCoy's business partner, Tom Vasquez, installs security systems for elderly citizens. When Vasquez sought to install his product for clients with Medicaid, McCoy allegedly threatened to block the deal (by getting the state Medicaid office to remove the business as a Medicaid vendor) unless he received $100 for each installation. Federal authorities claim that McCoy collected over $2,000 before December 2005, and they have recorded ten hours of conversation between the two men as evidence.
When the case first broke, pundits cried foul, citing the brewing U.S. Attorney scandal as evidence that the prosecutor was reaffirming his status as a "loyal Bushie." Local pundit David Ypsen noted that the prosecutor is a strong social conservative who was slated earlier this year to emcee an event for the Iowa Christian Coalition. Needless to say: "Active involvement in ideological political action groups like that is rare for U.S. attorneys in Iowa — and even the Justice Department higher-ups seemed to think better of it."
Now, with only a week until the trial begins, McCoy is echoing the cry. In a filing this week, his attorney seeks to have the case dismissed on grounds of prosecutorial abuse. According to court documents, the government withheld from the grand jury taped conversations in which McCoy explicitly told Vasquez that he would not suffer retribution if he didn't share his earnings. The filing also accuses the government of intercepting emails between McCoy and his attorney, as well as surreptitiously paying Vasquez to cooperate in the prosecution (even offering him a bonus if the case returned a guilty plea).
The government has yet to respond to McCoy's call for an investigation. But McCoy has not shied way from accusing his accusers. Earlier in the year, McCoy, who is openly gay (after being outed by an arch-conservative lawmaker on the Iowa Senate floor), claimed, "I have been a continuous target of groups targeting gays to advance their own agendas of intolerance and hate. Clearly, there is significant speculation about what has motivated federal officials to take this action against me." But McCoy has backed down from that accusation, at least, saying "since then, I honestly have to say, I have found no evidence to support some of the thoughts that I had at the time that I shared with the media." So for now, McCoy's suspicion is confined to whether prosecutors only went after him because he's a Democrat.
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All Muck is Local: God Responds to Wrongful Termination Suit
Oral Roberts built his university and medical research center with nothing but his own sweat, grit and vision of a 900-foot Jesus (oh, and lots of contributions from his viewers). But now, his son Richard is accused of using the school as his own private cash cow and forcing faculty members to illegally dive into Tulsa politics.
Dr. Tim Brooker and two other former professors are suing the university and President Roberts for wrongful termination. In a petition this week, Brooker maintains he and his colleagues were fired for presenting a laundry list of complaints compiled against Roberts and his wife, including: 11 remodels of their university home, $800/month cell phone bills, horses for their children and scholarships for their friends, all on the school's dime.
But it's Brooker's complaints about the 2005 mayoral election that bring the story to All Muck is Local. Dr. Brooker is a successful professor of practical politics; his work has brought him enough attention for the Republican National Committee to base a program out of ORU to help shape national campaigns and issues. Brooker maintains (and his students have confirmed) that his class never focused on local politics, because it “turns neighbors into enemies.”
But in December of 2005, Brooker claims that Roberts approached him and said it was time to leverage ORU's funds and campaign experience to support Randi Miller – a county commissioner and friend of Roberts'- in her mayoral bid. Brooker pointed out that directly supporting a local candidate was a bad idea, not least because it would violate the university's 501(c)(3) status. Roberts insisted, and eventually the school began to shill for Miller. When the IRS did indeed contact the university about its campaign activities, Roberts allegedly told Brooker to take the fall and to deny that his employer or the university proper had played a role. The cover-up was driven home when the university provost signed an affidavit attesting to Roberts deniability- a statement that Brooker says he wrote and that the university intentionally distorted and even changed in order to absolve the president.
Roberts says that God says this case is a matter of “blackmail and extortion,” claiming that the plaintiff's lawyer holds a personal grudge against him after losing millions of dollars to ORU over several cases. “'We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not,'" God told Roberts.
In a phone call Friday, the lawyer, Gary Richardson, told me that he is not seeking “to kill the cow to get to the milk,” and that he's only interested in the corrupt practices of the university's current administration. He also says he's only been in a single case involving the university's adjacent hospital; the case never went to trial.
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All Muck is Local: Careful What You Blog For
In the Arizona legislature, one DUI on your record is fine. But two is really pushing things.
State Rep. Trish Groe (R-AZ) is preparing for her arraignment this Monday on one count of aggravated DUI and another of false reporting, entered in a September 18th indictment.
Groe was pulled over last March, after an officer noticed her swerving at 70 mph in a 55 mph zone . At first she denied having been drinking, but then informed the officer that she was a “functional alcoholic." Two separate tests confirmed her blood-alcohol content was roughly twice the legal limit. Shortly after the arrest, Groe took a leave of absence from her legislative position and checked into a rehabilitation clinic.
But the woes have returned now that her arraignment date approaches. In Arizona, a DUI is generally treated as a misdemeanor and judges usually shorten the 30-day sentence down to 10 days. However, Groe’s case is compounded by the fact that she lied to the officer about having a valid driver’s license. In actuality, her license had been revoked due to an outstanding ticket in California. This bumps her charge up to a felony. In addition, it certainly won’t help her case that Groe had already been arrested for a DUI in 1999 (also in California).
Local Democrats began calling for her resignation immediately after the indictment. Republicans, always sensitive to the judicial process, have insisted that the system do its job before any rash decisions are made. Groe will be required to leave her position only if she is convicted of a felony. Since it is likely that her case will be argued down to a misdemeanor she may be able to keep her public position, but it is unlikely that she will entirely avoid jail time.
Only a month before, Groe wrote on her blog (in response to another representative’s legislation), “How about focusing on enforcement of the current law against reckless driving instead of passing new legislation?” Presumably, come Monday she’ll get her wish.
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All Muck is Local: Virginia Officials Bag African Safari, Indictments
Who knew having the state help pay for a transatlantic hunting trip could come back to haunt you?
This past Thursday, Virginia's attorney general unsealed indictments against three former top officials from the state's Game and Wildlife Fisheries Agency. William Woodfin Jr., the agency's former director, and former game wardens Michael Caison and Terry Bradbery face a combined five counts of misspending government funds.
Officially, the indictments don’t spell out the circumstances under which the men misused the funds; it only states that the crimes occurred sometime between 2003 and 2004. However, a state audit released in 2005 was highly critical of the general infighting and cronyism amid the department’s top officials. The audit harped on one spending item in particular: an African safari.
Okay, so the department didn’t entirely finance a safari trip to Zimbabwe for Woodfin, Caison and Bradbery. Rather, Dan Hoffler --a former chairman of the department’s oversight board-- paid for most of the trip, suggesting that it would be a learning experience (and Hoffler came along too). But the three men did use state credit cards to pick up a few of the extra costs along the way, such as: rifle bags, digital cameras, four DVD players (always crucial on a hunting trip), and a satellite phone that they used to call their families. All told, Virginia taxpayers ended up footing $11,532 in “trip expenses.”
All three men have expressed through their lawyers that they intend to plead not guilty to the charges. And it's apparent that the 2005 state audit, which was turned over to investigators years ago, is what’s at issue in the indictments. Bradbery’s lawyer told reporters “the state is not out any money whatsoever. This (Africa) trip was approved.” Hoffler, who will not face charges for his role in the affair, admitted to cooperating with the investigation and said he was “extremely disappointed” in the indictments.
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All Muck is Local
All Muck is Local: New Jersey Tackles Corruption One Dozen at A Time
To an outsider, New Jersey politics often seems like a den of corruption. The latest series of arrests doesn’t do much to change that reputation.
This week, eleven local politicians and one co-conspirator were arrested as part of a statewide bribery scandal. The crowd runs the gamut of the political scene: mayors, assembly members, staffers and local council members have all been charged. The list is dominated by ten Democrats, although one Republican makes it a bipartisan affair.
The story is slowly unfolding, as the FBI has only disclosed enough information to provide probable cause for the arrests. But it is clear that the operation began in the town of Pleasantville, where FBI agents posed as representatives from an insurance company and a roofing agency. Agents met individually with members of the town’s education council, setting up deals throughout the past year to pay cash bribes in exchange for contracts.
It would have made for a quick story of small town corruption, but the Pleasantville school board members recommended that their new FBI friends look for more "business" upstate. From there, the FBI’s insurance company bounced from willing politician to willing politician, taking them to the cities of Newark, Orange, Passaic and Patterson. As in all prime cases of local corruption, underhanded deals were carried out in parked cars and restaurants.
The two highest ranked officials are Alfred Steele, a state assemblyman, and Mims Hackett, Jr., also an assemblyman as well as the mayor of Orange. It was on Steele’s recommendation that investigators were introduced to Hackett; both men promised to help the would-be insurers obtain state contracts in exchange for cash.
Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney leading the investigation, took a play out of the Giuliani textbook. He organized a series of public arrests complete with handcuffs and leg shackles for the twelve, who were released on bail Thursday and left to shirk the herd of reporters on their own. (Steele resorted to running away from the press, which resulted in a rush-hour traffic jam.) Still, the Democratic leadership have been quick to challenge claims that Christie is playing partisan politics. Senate President Richard Codey addressed local Democrats on Friday saying, "these questions about whether the U.S. Attorney is too political, that's not the question. He didn't put a gun to anyone's head and force them to put their hand in the cookie jar."
As of now, both Steele and Hackett look set to resign their positions on Monday. We'll see if the immediate response of outrage by local Democrats helps to ameliorate the reputation that New Jersey is still the home of Tony Soprano and dirty politicians.
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All Muck is Local: Blank Check to Coy's Mistress Brings Trouble
Make room Craig, Vitter and Bob. Coy Privette (R-NC) wants to join the summer of scandal!
Privette, a 74-year old retired pastor, has pleaded guilty to six counts of soliciting a prostitute. Privette is a long-time participant in North Carolina politics, spending eight years in the state house and another nine as a commissioner of Cabarrus County. He is a staunch social conservative and, until recently, President of the Christian Action League.
The trouble started for Privette back in May, when an unnamed woman cashed a blank check with his signature on it. The woman had a second check, already written out for $4,000. She explained that the checks weren’t given to her, but to a friend who had asked her to cash them. Privette was alerted of the possible forgery; he said he had indeed lost the two checks and the bank refunded his money. Case closed.
Well, not for the police. They traced the checks back to one Tiffany Summers. But on July 19th, a court indicted both Summers and Privette. Apparently, he had paid her for services at least six times over as many months. Privette immediately stepped down from his Christian advocacy group; he later pleaded guilty on August 22nd. The judge has agreed to expunge his record upon completing 48 hours of community service, saying he's only concerned with "making sure the behavior stopped."
Privette would be happy to leave the embarrassing matter at that, having very publicly learned his lesson (i.e.- if you've got world enough and time, don't pay for a prostitute with a blank check). But local Republicans aren’t having it. They are furious that Coy has not resigned his commissioner position (if you recall, North Carolina GOP have already had its share of embarrassment from former state reps). Each of his fellow commissioners (all Republicans) has publicly demanded he resign. On Friday, the state Republican chairman sent him a letter demanding he step down, saying, "he's dishonored and disgraced."
For his part, Privette said Friday he is staying on the job. But the moment of truth will likely be this Tuesday, when he meets with the entire board of commissioners. It promises to be an awkward conversation.
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All Muck is Local: Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce (R) has a problem of saying one thing and doing another.
Here’s what Joyce, who was indicted Monday on nine counts of money laundering and mail fraud, has said. Back in 2001, he was in a car accident. The injury was so bad that he had to forgo almost all physical activity. According to the narrative he filed with his insurance company, he couldn’t golf. He didn’t renew his scuba license because he couldn’t swim. And though he had received a primary nomination to the state Supreme Court, now the pain from his injuries meant that he couldn’t even imagine running an election campaign.
The only problem is, that’s not true. Okay, so some of it is true. Joyce was involved in a fender-bender with another car (at speeds around 5 miles per hour). The bump was minor, so no police or medics were called to the scene. And it is true that a year later Joyce filed insurance claims with both his insurer and that of the other driver; he received settlements totaling $440,000. And to be fair, even low-speed accidents can produce chronic injuries.
What doesn’t seem to be true is the idea that Joyce was suffering very much. He said he couldn’t play golf. But he turned in sixteen completed scorecards between the accident and the filing (who wants to lose his golf handicap?). He said he had forgone his scuba license. But a December 2001 check to the Professional Association of Driving Instructors says otherwise, as does a June 2002 scuba trip to Jamaica. Joyce says he had to abandon his hopes of a Supreme Court campaign, despite the support of his party. But the grand jury indictment says he received no such endorsement or nomination, and his local Republicans have so far agreed. You can see the full indictment here.
In fact, Joyce even found time in 2002 to pick up a few new hobbies. When he wasn’t driving around on the motorcycle he bought with the first round of his insurance money, Joyce was enjoying another new hobby: flying. Between April and October, he piloted a plane over fifty times. And in order to pilot, he had to sign off saying he that he was not experiencing physical limitations or problems. He even put some of his insurance windfall towards a down payment on a private plane.
Joyce is set to fight the indictment in court, promising to mount a “a vigorous legal defense.” Then again, he also said last week that he had no plans to abandon his reelection campaign. But this week, he announced that he will retire after this term. So it remains to be seen if this is the time Michael Joyce actually does what he says.
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All Muck is Local: Nebraska
Call it a rookie political mistake. It's one thing for a politician to lend a hand to his constituents, particularly the ones who can afford to make campaign contributions. But please; be discreet.
Last week Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning ordered Nelnet, a student lending company caught up in the recent industry-wide scandal, to pay a fine of one million dollars. Nelnet has, at least twice, paid university administrators who recommended that students finance their debt through the firm. The company is also hired by universities to educate students about how to pay for college; not illegal, but surely a conflict-of-interest practice that they have agreed to stop.
So what’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, except the million dollars is actually a fine that Bruning assigned the company all the way back in April, a fine that he forgave only two weeks ago.
Bruing erased the fine after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ordered a similar punishment for Nelnet. Cuomo has made investigating student lenders a focus of his office; already, several banks have been ordered to contribute to a national education fund. Cuomo announced on July 31st that Nelnet would be paying $2 million to the fund.
Upon hearing the news, Bruning immediately forgave Nelnet his part of the obligation. He also used the opportunity to take a few shots at his fellow AG, saying that he “never believed that the investigation was particularly useful.” Bruning went even further, saying, "Nelnet is an ethical, decent, honest company…. I will never apologize for being a defender of Nelnet."
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All Muck is Local: West Virginia
Call it a case of mistaken prosecution. West Virginia State Senator Oshel Craigo (D-WV) went down to defeat in 2002 after Republicans (drawing on tight ties to the state's U.S. attorney) spread the word that he was under federal investigation. But it's a funny thing: Craigo was never actually prosecuted. And now his successor Lisa Smith (R), who rose to victory on the news of Craigo's legal troubles, is headed to jail for the same crime.
Smith acknowledged in her plea that she and her husband committed tax fraud by not paying the IRS employment taxes generated by their in-home health care companies. But, more interesting to Local Muck fans (both of them), Smith has also admitted that she intentionally created and submitted a false campaign finance statement during her 2002 state senate bid. Smith made up records that $15,000 had been contributed to her campaign by friends and family; the money actually came from her own pocket. Ironically, it was allegations of campaign finance fraud that helped Smith win office back in 2002.
Smith began her political career in 2000 when she was elected to the West Virginia state house. In 2002, she challenged Democratic incumbent Oshel Craigo for his state senate seat, in what became the most expensive race of the season.
Only a few weeks before a tight general election, the local Republican committee sent around press releases claiming that Craigo was under federal investigation for falsely filing a campaign finance report. The press ran with the story, and Craigo lost the race. He blamed the press stories for his loss, and he wasn’t the only one. Gary Abernath, former state Republican Party executive director, said in 2005 that, “the investigation itself never did seem to yield any results, but the publicizing of it no doubt led to Craigo's defeat."
Abernathy would know; he played a key role in pushing the story to the media. But who gave him the the tip on the investigation? Abernanthy got the lead from Kris Warner, then chairman of the West Virginia Republican Committee. If the Warner name sounds familiar, it might be because his brother Kasey Warner was a U.S. Attorney who was a brief tangent in this year’s firing scandal.* The Warners are third generation West Virginia Republicans; their brother got in trouble in 2004 for printing "Bush/Warner" signs without the President's permission.
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