Trial may hinge on whether they were bribes, or merely La.
politics
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
By Michelle Krupa
West Bank bureau
The list of purported criminal acts by indicted state Judge Alan
Green begins with a $240 lunch at a New Orleans restaurant that the
jurist allegedly accepted from employees of Bail Bonds Unlimited.
The indictment goes on to include $750 for Green to play in a golf
tournament in New Orleans, $400 for rounds of golf in Belle Chasse and
$10,000 in cash, all of which federal prosecutors say Green took from
employees of Louis Marcotte III's bail bond company in return for the
judge's help in altering bonds so the firm could make money.
The question of whether the gifts were old-fashioned bribes or just
business as usual in Louisiana will be put to a jury in Green's trial,
set to begin Monday in federal court.
Of the 116 allegations against Green and his co-conspirator, former
Marcotte employee Norman Bowley, who pleaded guilty Thursday, at least
30 detail the gifts, cash and meals that prosecutors say Green received
as part of a racket that Marcotte has admitted he ran at the Jefferson
Parish courthouse in Gretna.
A review of some of Marcotte's political expenditures, however, shows
that Green was not the only Louisiana politician benefiting from Bail
Bonds Unlimited's generosity, a point legal observers said could be used
to bolster Green's trial defense that the items he received from
Marcotte did not amount to bribery but simply reflected the culture of
24th Judicial District Court.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have contended that Bail Bonds Unlimited
lavished gifts upon Green unlike any other official. And they have drawn
distinctions between the so-called "bribes" and campaign donations,
alleging that Marcotte and his employees gave the gifts with a criminal
intent, not a political one.
According to an internal register of the Gretna company's campaign
contributions obtained by The Times-Picayune and confirmed through state
Board of Ethics records, Bail Bonds Unlimited sent checks totaling
$35,750 to at least 56 politicians between Jan. 1, 1997, and June 30,
2002. That period overlapped the Operation Wrinkled Robe investigation,
which has netted 13 defendants and has impelled Green to go to trial
Monday to face charges of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
Among those who took donations are former state Insurance
Commissioner Jim Brown, who got $2,500 from the bond house in May 1999;
Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, who received a total of
$1,250 in 2000 and 2002, when he was Parish Council chairman; and
Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle, who got $500 in 1999, plus
$1,500 the next year.
Also on the list are some of Green's colleagues from Jefferson's
state court bench: Joan Benge, Kernan "Skip" Hand, Ross LaDart, Robert
Pitre and Steve Windhorst. Current and former New Orleans area state
legislators include John Alario, Glenn Ansardi, Lambert Boissiere,
Shirley Bowler, N.J. Damico, Kyle Green, Francis Heitmeier, Danny
Martiny and Joe Toomy.
Though the ledger lists dozens of public officials who received
contributions from Marcotte, who has pleaded guilty to felony
racketeering in connection with the courthouse probe, none of them,
except Green, has been named a subject or target to the federal
investigation. LaDart and Benge have been linked to it.
Lawyers familiar with federal cases said that makes the document,
along with the issuance of subpoenas last week by Green to 25 Jefferson
Parish public officials and court workers, a possible tool for the
defense to show that accepting items from Bail Bonds Unlimited was not
unusual in Jefferson's justice system.
"I surmise that the defense is trying to show that this is just the
way things are done in this court, to show that Marcotte didn't treat
Judge Green any differently than he treated any other people in the
judicial and political system," former federal prosecutor Shaun Clarke
said.
"Many of the things that are alleged are small things, like a golf
match or a meal," he added, "and the defense may be trying to show that
this is just the way people do business among lawyers and judges in that
court rather than any type of bribe."
Donald "Chick" Foret, a former state and federal prosecutor now
working as a criminal defense attorney, agreed, adding that the ledger
shows Marcotte was "a major political player."
But he also said prosecutors may have a potent comeback for the
notion that Marcotte dealt equally with Green and other judges: two
$5,000 cash payments that Green allegedly took from Bail Bonds Unlimited
employees in 2001 and 2002, according to the indictment.
"I think that's the most glaring weakness in the defense's case," he
said. "If I was the government, I would then differentiate the
contributions to Judge Green in relation to the contributions to the
others by asking three questions: Did (Marcotte) get any favors from
those folks? Did (other judges) get any cash contributions? And what did
they do with those cash contributions?"
Into the pocket
The indictment charges that Green made large deposits into his
personal bank account days after the first payment and was caught by
video surveillance pocketing the second.
The ledger records one $5,000 cash contribution to Green in March
2002, along with a note of its return five months later. The donation
and refund also are listed in Green's campaign finance reports.
Return of the cash, which coincided with reports that Green had been
videotaped accepting the contribution, was the subject of a now-settled
state Board of Ethics lawsuit accusing Green of taking a political
donation over the legal limits of $100 in cash and $2,500 per election
period for district judges.
Federal prosecutors Thursday asked U.S. District Judge Lance Africk
not to admit the state ethics case into evidence at Green's trial. But
Foret said even with the sum construed in state court records as an
improper campaign contribution, prosecutors still may call it a bribe.
"What the ethics board did with it is not binding on the jury, but if
I was the government, I'd say they didn't have all the facts when they
settled the case," Foret said.
Also listed in the ledger are donations linked to at least four golf
events that prosecutors have termed part of the corruption plot and that
appear to have occurred at campaign fund-raisers held by New Orleans
area politicians.
The indictment states, for instance, that "on or about September 17,
2001, BBU paid for Green and others to play in a golf tournament in
Mandeville, Louisiana at a cost of $600.00."
Marcotte's ledger includes a record of a $600 check dated Sept. 17,
2001, for "Walter P. Reed golf tournament," and a campaign finance
report filed by Reed, the district attorney in St. Tammany Parish,
confirms the deposit of a $600 check from Bail Bonds Unlimited on Oct.
9, 2001.
Responding to an inquiry about the contribution, Reed confirmed
receipt of the political donation, adding, "I have never met Mr.
Marcotte . . . and I do not have any knowledge or recollection of his
contribution."
The ledger also shows a credit card charge of $243.21 made on March
3, 1999, the same day the indictment states that Bail Bonds Unlimited
employees bought Green lunch in New Orleans for about $240. That
expenditure could not be found in finance records.
Powerful players
While Marcotte's index includes some of the state's most powerful and
renowned lawmakers and judicial figures, it also catalogs players whose
connections to the bail bond industry are less clear, such as Gretna
Mayor Ronnie Harris, New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas
and Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard.
Of the 56 politicians who took campaign money from Bail Bonds
Unlimited, 23 responded to an inquiry from The Times-Picayune requesting
further details about the contributions.
All said Marcotte and his employees never asked for a favor in return
for the donations, and many said they had no specific recollection of
receiving the money or believed it had been received by campaign
workers. The others did not answer the newspaper's request for comment.
Some offered further details of their dealings with Marcotte or Bail
Bonds Unlimited. Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court
John Gegenheimer wrote in an e-mail that "contributions
listed in the ledger coincide with the dates of my annual fund-raiser
golf tournament."
According to the indictment, Marcotte paid for Green to play in
tournaments that corresponded with
Gegenheimer's.
Orleans Parish Criminal Magistrate Judge Gerard Hansen pointed to a
Metropolitan Crime Commission report showing that he reduced few bonds
from July 2003 to July 2004 compared with his colleagues.
"My judgment in bond situations is based on the type of charge, the
person's record, and the probability of the defendants return to court,
not on who makes the request," he wrote in an e-mail.
Broussard said he was not sure why Bail Bonds Unlimited would have
given him money based on influence over their business. "The Jefferson
Parish Council, I don't know what jurisdiction or authority they would
be commanding over the bail bonding industry," he said.
Broussard also noted that at the time he and the other politicians
received the contributions, Bail Bonds Unlimited's link to the Wrinkled
Robe probe still was a secret.
"There would have been no idea at the time those contributions were
received that that company was under federal scrutiny," he said.
"Hindsight is 20/20."
