Day four: The wicket gets stickier for Medford

I ought to note here that due to time constraints I have been reporting the testimony of government witnesses without going into the cross examination by defense attorneys. They are indeed quizzing and questioning, but through the week and to the end of the day on Friday they scored no big points in their attempt to undercut the veracity of the witnesses or relevance of the evidence. If such occurs I will report it, and I will stick with this trial through the end, now estimated by Judge Tim Ellis to be on or about May 15.

Friday’s session started out with the judge revisiting a question raised on Thursday by juror #30 (the jurors are identified only by their original numbers in the 69-member pool). Number 30 had voiced concern because he was familiar with a name that had come up on Wednesday. The name is associated with the case, though that person will not be a witness and is not a subject of the current proceedings. In voire dire (i.e. direct questioning by the judge) on Thursday, juror #30 had explained some social contact with the named person and both the prosecution and defense had weighed the concern and agreed to postpone possible removal. Following the further discussion at the outset of Friday’s session and another voire dire, that juror was excused.

Judge Ellis explained to the juror that he had acted appropriately and honorably and that the dismissal was to prevent any possible suggestion that the aquaintanceship had colored a decision and to prevent the juror from feeling any personal qualms about the effect of a decision on his acquaintance. So, we’re down to one alternate.

Johnny Harrison returned to the stand Friday morning and Medford attorney Victoria Jane resumed her cross examination. She queried Harrison about his practice of keeping a bank bag full of cash in the trunk of his cruiser and cashing checks when Medford needed money beyond the available. Her questions reestablished Harrison’s previous testimony that he, Guy Penland and Ronnie “Butch” Davis routinely signed Bobby Medford’s name to checks before cashing them. Harrison repeated his assertion that it was done with Medford’s approval.

Jane also elicited testimony that Harrison and the department had closed down two video poker locations which had been the source of frequent complaints and which were not paying protection money.

As I predicted following the opening argument by Medford attorney Stephen Lindsay, Jane had Harrison confirm that he is married to former sheriff Harry Clay’s widow. It looks like one line of defense will be to link the crimes committed during Medford’s tenure to the notoriously corrupt Clay, in an effort to paint Medford as a hapless administrator whose underlings were carrying out their schemes without his knowledge.

Jane also tried to paint Harrison’s testimony as tainted by the plea deal he signed, suggesting that he was cooperating with the prosecutors in order to get a lighter sentence. Harrsion responded, “Ma’m, I pled guilty because I am guilty and I would appreciate any consideration I might receive.”

She talked about his Myrtle Beach home and said, “Your ability to enjoy the beach in your later years will be somewhat restricted if you are in jail.”

He replied, “Ma’m, you’ve got that one hundred percent right.” Later he added, “It’s hard for me to sit up here and say what I’ve done, to say what Bobby has done, to say what Guy has done, to talk about what Frank Orr has done. But it is the truth.”

In redirect, U.S. Attorney Richard Edwards asked Harrison to read the section of his plea agreement which stipulated that if any of his testimony were to prove false, that the entire agreement would be void.

Guy Penland’s attorney, Paul Bidwell helped the prosecution along when he elicted further details about Harrison’s channeling of funds to Medford which he in turn distributed to his family members. “He took care of them as well as he could.” This further corroborates what several of my sources have told me over the years, that Medford’s family would gather round in the sheriff’s office for distribution of funds. No one has questioned his generosity.

Because Bidwell opened that can of worms, Edwards returned to it in redirect and elicited further information about money to the family.

Taken all together, Harrison’s testimony drew a picture of many payoffs by several machine operators over many years, in unreported cash transactions, to Medford, Penland, Orr and himself.

At 11:45 a.m. the prosecution called Nick Anagnostopoulos to the stand. Anagnostopoulos is the owner of George’s Mini Mart, one of two stores that routinely cashed Medford’s checks for several years. He testified about the check cashing arrangement and his illegal operation of video poker machines owned by the Hot Dog King, Demetre Theodosis (already convicted on illegal gaming charges).

Anagnostopoulos said that Medford occasionally cashed his own checks at the store, and would call ahead to make sure there was enough cash on hand, though he always waited in the car and had a female companion actually conduct the transaction. The prosecution offered photos of numerous checks and bank records to underscored the testimony. Occasionally Medford wrote bad checks , according to Anagnostopoulos, and Harrison would cover them with cash.

Anagnostopoulos testified that he and Theodosis had attended a meeting with Medford when the 2000 gaming law went into effect and that Medford told them both “If you don’t cause problems for me, I won’t cause problems for you.” He interpreted that as a green light on illegal operation of the machines.

The next prosecution witness was Robert Robinson, a communications specialist with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department who took and routinely recorded a phone call from Guy Penland to run the plate on a car. Penland and Jerry Pennington, an employee of Henderson Amusement (a video poker operation) had staked out a location where an undercover officer was investigating illegal gambling. Penland’s call revealed that the car was in fact that of an undercover agent. According to the prosecution this not only tipped off the criminals but could have endangered the agent’s life.

Robinson noted that Medford issued a memo following revelation of Penland’s action to the effect that the communications department was to refrain from running any more tags for Penland.

Jackie Shepherd was next up for the prosecution.

(More on that a little later, I’ve got to work on my campaign for a couple of hours.)

(Well, it’s now Sunday morning. But I’ll continue this post since that will offer more continuity on Friday’s session than starting a new post.)

Jackie Willis Shepherd, who has already pled guilty to running an illegal gambling operation, may be cast as the most noble of those who’ve pled. His bargain was to confess and testify for the prosecution if the government dropped charges against his son and step-son. “I said this is my responsibility. take my sons off the list and I’ll plead guilty.” Whatever one might think about his crimes, his sons owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.

Shepherd testified that he got into the video poker business in 1999, when he took the business away from his son. “He was into drugs and wasn’t tending to business, and he stole some money from me.” He said he formed Western Amusement corporation to run the gaming in 2000, and brought in a partner from South Carolina named Keith Comer. Comer paid $75,000 for his half of the business ($50,000 cash and a $25,000 note to Shepherd repaid with machine profits.)

Shepherd said they ran the machine operation until June 28, 2007 when they were raided and the machines were seized. Asked by the prosecution if he made illegal cash payouts he responded, “I did. If we knew the person who was playing, we paid them.”

Asked how he got involved with Medford, Shepherd said, “I heard in 1993 that [Sheriff] Charlie Long was watching my son’s gambling operation.”

Shepherd said that in preparation for the election campaign he hired a tailor to make Medford suits and “I hired a speech lady to help him talk to crowds.” He said he put $20,000 to $30,000 into the 1994 campaign. Asked why he spent so much money, Shepherd replied, “We needed some changes in the county. We needed him to go in and clean up the county.”

The two had a falling out in 1997 and Shepherd sat out the 1998 and 2002 elections, according to his testimony.

Shepherd also said that Kay Carter, who worked for both the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department and one of Shepherd’s convenience stores, also made cash payouts to video poker players, “If she knew them.”

Shepherd also testified to making cash payments to Medford on several occasions, sometimes characterized as “loans.” Did he pay you back? “No.” Why? “He wasn’t botherin’ my poker machines.” He also said his stores had cashed bad checks for Medford which were later covered by Carter or Medford’s secretary Sharon Stewart.

Finally he affirmed that he had received a phone call from Ronnie “Butch” Davis on Nov. 14, 2006, alerting him to the bust of the Theodosis Hot Dog King locations. (Records showed that multiple phone calls went out from the sheriff’s department that day to numerous gaming operators, presumably informing them of the bust.)

In cross examination, Lindsay made a point of noting that one of Medford’s sons had had drug problems as well, and said, “And you talked about it?”

“About my son,” Shepherd replied, “Not his.”

Just before 3 p.m., Linda Clontz, of the N.C. Department of Corrections took the stand. Clontz, who said she has known Medford for 30 years, oversees the community service/alternative sentencing program in Buncombe.

Her testimony concerned the community service of Jerry Pennington, the “salesman” for Henderson Amusement (concerning which matter, Harrison had previously testified that he signed off on service that was never done).

Clontz said she had been disturbed about the entire arrangement from the beginning. It was almost unheard of for a court to order a change of venue for service (from Cleveland County to Buncombe). It was entirely unheard of for a person to perform service in a county in which he was not a resident, and Pennington’s address was Kings Mountain. Then, when she received the completed form from Penland, with Harrison’s initials and signature, she was suspicious that the hours had not actually been served. “Just intuition,” she testified, “So I called Bobby Medford to express my displeasure and suspicion.”

The final witness for the week was Anna Deaton, an employee of Henderson Amusement whose work included transcription of hand written notes from Jerry Pennington into a computer database, as well as maintenance of paper files. Though she now works for Henderson in Spartanburg, from 2003 until May 17, 2007 she worked at the company’s Kings Mountain location.

Deaton led the prosecution through her files, which included three filing boxes of detailed notes about payoffs to Medford, Penland, Harrison and others. In addition she testified that Penland had once driven her to the Haywood County Sheriff’s office to get machines registered there.

Proceedings adjourned at about 4:15 p.m.because Judge Ellis needed to catch a plane. Court will reconvene at 9 a.m. Monday. It was also announced that Tuesday’s start will be delayed until 10 a.m. to permit jurors time to vote.