FBI wined, dined influential senator during sting

AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The FBI wined and dined an influential state senator on a three-day trip to Miami before he agreed to work for a company at the center of a statewide corruption investigation, a federal court witness said Tuesday.

L.C. McNiel, an undercover FBI agent, said the government paid for the trip while trying to determine if then-Sen. John Ford would take bribes to help a company called E-Cycle Management change state law.

Ford, 64, is on trial on bribery and extortion charges, and McNiel testified for a second day under cross examination by defense attorney Michael Scholl who contends his client was set up by the FBI.

McNiel said he did not know how much the FBI spent putting Ford up in a fancy Miami hotel, taking him out to eat at expensive restaurants and sponsoring an evening in a nightclub's VIP room.

"This investigation required money to be spent," McNiel said.

At the end of the trip in July 2004, Ford agreed to work with E-Cycle, which supposedly was seeking legislation for a business advantage over competitors.

E-Cycle turned out to be a fake company created by the FBI for a statewide corruption investigation called Tennessee Waltz. Ford is one of five current or former state lawmakers charged with taking E-Cycle bribes. He resigned from the Senate shortly after his indictment in May 2005.

Ford's trial began April 9 and is expected to last up to a month.

Prosecutors have played clips from dozens of secretly recorded audio and video tapes on which Ford promises to help E-Cycle or can be seen taking stacks of cash from McNiel.

Ford, a Memphis Democrat, is charged with taking $55,000 in bribes from E-Cycle and also is accused of threatening a federal witness.

The FBI says Ford came looking for handouts when E-Cycle first introduced itself to state lawmakers with a dinner in Nashville in April 2004.

But Scholl contends Ford, a part-time lawmaker and full-time business consultant, thought he was drawing legitimate payments from E-Cycle for his legislative advice.

Ford's first payments from E-Cycle began after the Miami trip where he met with company officers aboard a yacht, which turned out to be FBI property from a drug seizure.

McNiel and other agents made hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings during Tennessee Waltz, but Scholl questioned why none was made aboard the yacht or during Ford's government-sponsored nights on the town in Miami.

McNiel said the nightclubs were too noisy, while at quieter locations, "these were not pertinent conversations."

McNiel said he recorded a talk with Ford while driving him to the Miami airport for a flight back to Memphis.

"How can you fit in best with us?" McNiel asks during the rambling conversation.

Ford says he can help by "contacting people ... putting together the deal, you know."

Throughout his cross examination, Scholl questioned McNiel about continuously lying to Ford, about business and personal matters.

"I was playing a role," McNiel said several times.

Using parts of FBI tapes not presented to the jury by prosecutors, Scholl focused on recorded conversations in which McNiel talked about his success as a music and movie-soundtrack producer, none of which was truthful.

Scholl also played a tape of a telephone call to Ford in which McNiel, who pretended to be a single father with a 9-year-old son in Chicago, asked for advice in keeping the boy focused on his school work.

"None of that is true is it?" Scholl asked.

"No sir," McNiel replied.

Overall, the Tennessee Waltz investigation has led to indictments against 11 defendants, including several local officials in Memphis and Chattanooga.

One other lawmaker, former Sen. Roscoe Dixon, D-Memphis, has been to trial. He was convicted in November and sentenced to five years in prison.

Former Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland, pleaded guilty to bribery and served a nine-month sentence. Sen. Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga, and former Sen. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis, are awaiting trials.