Another brief trial update: more coming

I’ll be out collecting campaign yard signs today, but will definitely do a catch up on the trial before the weekend is out.

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The prosecution has rested in the corruption trial of former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford. Testimony and evidence presented in the first eight days of proceedings have drawn a picture of a conspiracy which endured over several years involving extortion, mail fraud and money laundering connected to illegal gambling in Buncombe, Cleveland, Haywood, Macon and Rutherford Counties. Prosecution witnesses have included gambling operators, machine owners, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, a waitress and a CPA.

Medford and co-defendant Guy Penland have remained largely impassive throughout, with the former sheriff gazing straight ahead and Penland casting a dazed look all around the room. The former sheriff appears to studiously avoid eye contact with his former employee. Defense attorneys Stephen Lindsay, Victoria Jayne and Paul Bidwell have made very little apparent headway in attempts to undercut the witnesses veracity or the evidence introduced, though of course, that will be up to the jury to decide, and the defense won’t conclude its case until about May 14.

Several of those involved reported handing sums of cash as high as $5,000 to Medford, while others explained money laundering operations that included forged signatures on checks and conversion of illegal cash campaign donations to money orders for reporting purposes. Video poker machines which were imported to the state illegally were registered in Buncombe County and then operated illegally, by offering cash payouts instead of the maximum of $10 in store merchandise prescribed by law.

The most surprising testimony has been somewhat tangential to the government’s case. Three witnesses offered evidence that Henderson Amusement, one of several gaming machine providers in the region, had not only paid off Buncombe sheriff’s personnel but had paid the Haywood County Sheriff $3,300 per month for a period of years. That news has rocked Haywood, and Sheriff Tom Alexander has been summoned by the grand jury.

Two witnesses testified to the accuracy of a document that reported delivery of $1,000 in cash to Buncombe County Commissioners during the 2004 election cycle. No names there, but that amount of cash could not have been a legal contribution even if spread around to all 9 candidates in that year’s race, since cash donations were capped at $100 at that time.

After the prosecution finished, the defense entered a plea for dismissal of all charges. This is a standard procedure and requires the judge to rule as to whether sufficient evidence has been offered to permit the jury to decide guilt or innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. Judge Tim Ellis ruled that the evidence is sufficient to proceed on all ten counts facing the pair.
Medford attorneys Lindsay and Jayne began their defense with testimony from current Buncombe Sheriff Van Duncan, former department attorney Julie Kepple, former sheriff’s secretary Rhonda House and former deputy Jerry Miller. Miller provided the juiciest surprise of the week-long proceedings, telling the court that he received warning from a close friend , “a high-ranking Democrat,” that Medford was being investigated and warned his boss three years ago.

Miller’s career includes 24 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the the Western North Carolina District before joining Medford’s ranks. He stated that he warned Medford, who “blew up” and then told me “he didn’t want me standing in the way when the bomb went off.” Miller said he learned that sheriffs could entirely ban video poker in their counties, though gaming operators had sued at least one county where that occurred, and so informed his boss. This opened the way for Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Edwards to inquire whether Medford had, in fact, removed any machines. “No,” was Miller’s response.

The revelation also throws open the question of what, if anything, Medford did during those three years to prepare for the likely eventuality that prosecutors would come knocking. Given the amount of cash that changed hands in the multi-million dollar gambling business in Buncombe County, there would seem to be plenty of room for squirreling away retirement funds in a barn or a closet or under a rock.

Defense will continue to present its case on Monday, May 12, with concluding arguments anticipated by about May 16.