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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A casino developer who has pleaded guilty to offering bribes to legislators testified Wednesday he was joking when he proposed having his female lobbyist expose her breasts to a state senator for his vote for a pro-gambling bill.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, jurors in Alabama's gambling corruption trial heard a wiretapped phone call between Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley and one of his male lobbyists. During the call, Gilley proposed a $50,000 bonus for casino lobbyist Jennifer Pouncy if she would expose her breasts to then-Sen. Jim Preuitt and let him touch her to secure his vote.
Gilley said he never asked her to do that. He apologized for the remark.
"It was a very distasteful joke," he said.
Pouncy, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, cried on the witness stand Tuesday when defense attorneys played the taped call for the jury.
"I didn't think it was funny," Pouncy testified.
Gilley, who has pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy, built Country Crossing casino in Dothan to attract tourist traffic headed to Florida Panhandle beaches.
Testifying for the prosecution, he said his electronic bingo games took in $18 million during the three-day opening weekend in December 2009 but he had to close the casino in January 2010 due to a state crackdown on electronic bingo. He said indicted casino owner Milton McGregor loaned him $14 million and they worked together to try to pass legislation designed to protect Country Crossing and McGregor's VictoryLand casino in Shorter from the crackdown.
"We were in dire straits and severe financial trouble," he said of Country Crossing.
To pass the bill, Gilley said he planned to make significant campaign contributions to legislators.
McGregor, Preuitt, Sen. Harri Anne Smith, former Sen. Larry Means, casino lobbyist Tom Coker and casino spokesman Jay Walker are in the second week of a federal court trial on conspiracy and bribery charges accusing them of using campaign contributions to buy and sell votes for the pro-gambling bill.
Earlier Wednesday, former state Sen. Steve French of Mountain Brook said Smith offered him a campaign contribution if he would vote for the bill.
French said the senator, who had Country Crossing casino in her southeast Alabama district, made the offer during a meeting of the Senate on March 11, 2010.
"I told her we were not going to have that kind of conversation because we were not going to link an official act to a contribution," French testified.
"She said, 'Oh, I understand. But if you can commit to vote for the gambling bill, I will give you a contribution,'" French said.
"I stated again we were not going to discuss linking of a vote to a contribution," French said.
French said it was the only time anyone offered him a contribution for a vote during his 12 years in the Senate.
Under questioning by Smith's attorney, French said he mentioned the conversation to two other senators but didn't report it to the Alabama Department of Public Safety until a couple of days after the FBI's announcement on April 1, 2010, that it was investigating vote buying at the Statehouse.
In March 2010, Smith and French were both Republicans who had served together since 1998. The Senate passed the gambling bill 21-13 on March 30, 2010, with Smith voting yes and French voting no.
The bill died in the House a few weeks later. French lost his re-election bid later that year. Smith got kicked off the Republican ticket, became an independent and won re-election while under indictment in the federal court case.
In other testimony Wednesday, Jim Sumner, executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, testified that a deceased defendant, former legislative bill writer Ray Crosby, did not initially report on his annual state ethics forms that he was getting $3,000 a month from one of McGregor's companies. He said Crosby revised his 2008 and 2009 forms in August 2010 to show the payments. That was four months after the FBI announced its investigation.
Under questioning by McGregor's lawyer, Sumner said McGregor had no obligation to report the payments to the Ethics Commission.
Crosby, who wrote gambling bills for the Legislature, was supposed to be among those on trial, but the 63-year-old defendant died Jan. 29 at his Montgomery home from natural causes. McGregor still faces charges involving the payments.
