Medford trial: May 13, final testimony

Today’s proceedings began with continued cross-examination of Bobby Medford and concluded with character witnesses for co-defnedant Guy Penland, who declined to take the stand in his own defense. The defense has rested its case and the prosecution will not offer rebuttal, so the evidentiary portion of the trial is over. Tomorrow, Judge Tim Ellis will present proposed jury instructions to both sides at 9 a.m., rectify any disagreements at 10 a.m. and call the jury in at 11 a.m. to hear concluding arguments.

At the outset today, Asst. U.S. Attorney Corey Ellis continued to cross-examine Medford and elicited the claim that Medford was entitled to the proceeds of the golf tournaments he organized in non-election years, to disburse as he saw fit. Medford continued to insist that all funds were used for charitable purposes.

Ellis also elicited agreement from Medford that while he had a policy of excluding volunteers who violated department policy, he never excluded Penland despite violations of policy beyond telling him that he could no longer register video poker machines.

Medford confirmed that special deputy I.D. cards issued to Jerry Pennington bore his signature, but said that he signed multiple cards and had no idea who received them. Although he insisted that all recipients of special deputy IDs were subject to background checks, he was unable to explain how Pennington, with a criminal record, was able to obtain his deputization. Twice.

Medford repeated his testimony that he had garnered $2,500 to $3,000 from each golf tourney, then, when showed evidence that he had been handed at least $7,500 in proceeds in 2006, he denied knowledge of the payments. Ellis reminded him that he had reported more than $20,000 in cash donations from the golf tournament in the 2002 election and asked if inability to accept cash in 2006 (due to a change in election law) represented a problem that year. Medford denied concern about the cash problem.

The former sheriff indicated that correlation of phone calls from Medford’s cell phone to Demetre Theodosis with cash deposits to Medford’s account were coincidental, as were meetings and phone calls concerning a change of machines at Imran Alam’s stores, a withdrawal of cash by Alam, and alleged payments to Johnny Harrison and Medford.

Similarly coincidental were records showing $2.400 in cash moved from receipts in a 2006 golf tournament to Medford, deposit of $2,400 to his checking account, payment of $2,400 to a veterinarian and newspaper reports that Medford had paid the vet bill out of his own pocket. Medford’s girlfriend’s son, a deputy, had shot a dog who died after extensive efforts to save him, and Medford had grandly announced that he would pay the veterinary bills. Only he didn’t.

While denying that he had used proceeds from the golf tournament, Medford insisted that the money had come from six or so other department employees, though he could only name Pat Hefner, George Stewart and Randy Bradford as contributors.

Ellis also noted that Medford had claimed $45,000 in charitable donations on his 2006 tax return and asked if the $2,400 was part of that total. Medford expressed astonishment at the number and denied having made such donations and insisted that it was a typographical error. He said he would file an amended return.

Medford’s total itemized deductions for 2006 totalled $97,000 with a reported income of $215,000.

Ellis also noted that upon retirement Medford had claimed $20,000 in back pay for vacations he had never taken, despite the fact that he spent at least 160 work days at Harrah’s from 2003 to 2006. Medford said that he only counted vacation days when he was away from Buncombe County, and that Harrah’s was only 50 minutes from town.

Altogether, Medford dug himself deeper during his testimony.

Next the defense called Erik Lioy, an expert in forensic accounting, who had examined all of Medford’s and girlfriend Judi Bell’s financial records for the years in question. Lioy’s testimony seemed tapered to fit the defense. He used gross income figures to illustrate that the pair’s gambling losses were entirely explicable and affordable, instead of net income which, in 2006, should have deducted Medford’s alleged $45,000 in charitable giving. Lioy also glossed over the idea that the records he examined from Harrah’s ONLY INCLUDED gambling done while the pair used their membership cards. Gambling without use of a card would be invisible unless a person won more than $1200 at one time on one machine.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Richard Edwards shredded Lioy’s credibility on cross-examination.

Medford’s defense concluded with three character witnesses who all said Bobby is trustworthy.

Guy Penland’s attorney Paul Bidwell offered three character witnesses who all like Guy a lot. Then he questioned FBI agent Michael McNeely with the intent of casting doubt on the testimony of prosecution witness Tracy Bridges. Bidwell failed in the attempt.

That’s it for today.

Medford trial: Monday, May 12

In order to keep this record as unconfusing as possible, I will fill in the details from last week in the entry below this one, and try to keep up with current events in this and subsequent posts.

Yesterday the most interesting action in the trial was off stage. Judge Tim Ellis noted at the start that he had been notified by Medford’s defense team that prosecution witness Tracy Bridges had allegedly contacted two defense witnesses over the weekend: Sean Ledford and Ebony Nate Dickens. This opens two cans of worms at once.

Witnesses are not permitted to contact other witnesses once they have been notified of their status and provided with a list of the others. If Bridges contacted them he is liable for prosecution for tampering with witnesses. Furthermore, Bridges is currently on probation after pleading guilty to crimes connected with the Medford case. This opens the possibility that his plea deal will be invalidated, or that he will face trial for probation violation. Ellis assigned a probation officer present in the court room to investigate the matter.

At lunch time another bomb went off. Ellis informed the Medford defense team that he had received information that an investigator working for the defense had posed as a federal agent while conducting his work. The judge was careful to point out that the charge may not be true, but observed that if true it was a felony violation of federal law and would be subject to prosecution. Attorney Stephen Lindsay assured the judge that he would look into the matter immediately.

Bobby Medford spend most of the rest of the day in the witness stand answering a tedious list of questions from Lindsay. The main thrust of the defense effort seems to be to portray Medford as an incompetent administrator who was way over his head, with too many employees and too heavy a work load, making it impossible for him to keep tabs on something as incidental as video poker. Medford denied any knowledge of any wrongdoing, denied receiving money from anyone connected to gambling, denied the multiple meetings with operators which had been presented in previous testimony and talked about sending money to his grandsons’ mothers. He also insisted that the golf tournaments never netted more than $2,000 to $3,000 and that all money collected in non-election years was used as alms for the poor who flocked to his office seeking heating oil, food or clothing.

Medford flatly denied any involvement in cashing checks at George’s Mini-Mart, authorizing others to cash checks, permitting cash donations to his campaign once he was informed of the law or permitting money orders to be purchased with cash. He insisted that the cash used to purchase money orders “made out with the names of people who had always given me checks in the past” came from cashing those checks in the 2006. This is an interesting explanation of the source of the checks, and when the judge queried him, he couldn’t explain why the checks (if they existed) weren’t deposited directly into the campaign account, since they would have been completely legal contributions. Nor could he explain why he was purportedly “mad” about the purchase of money orders if the money was from a legal source.

Medford admitted to enjoying some gambling now and again, but only at legal casinos outside the county. (He insisted that he prohibited his deputies from gambling inside the county with a one-warning rule.)

Cross examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Ellis began at 5:15 p.m.

Ellis started by challenging the golf tournament numbers with previously introduced documents that showed net profits of $11,650 and $9,270 in spring and fall of 2005. He asked Medford why those were so high if other tournaments were much lower. Medford obfuscated but didn’t really answer.

Ellis elicted further explanation from Medford about golf receipts during non-election years, clarifying what Medford insisted was a charitable operation from his office using unreported income. Medford claimed a complete disconnect from the golf tournament organization, no knowledge that many video poker operators funded the tourneys, no knowledge that Guy Penland styled himself as a “Captain” including references on repeated golf tournament flyers over several years, etc.

Then Ellis cranked up the heat and tried to elicit explanation for the tens of thousands of dollars of cash deposits made to Medford’s bank account over a six year period, as well as larger cash deposits to his girlfriend’s account. Medford obfuscated further with claims about an insurance settlement, cashing in his 401K and finally suggesting that he used his VISA card to obtain cash to put in his checking account, upon which he kept the loosest of tabs. Girlfriend Judi Bell balanced the check book.

Ellis pointed out that he was frequently overdrawn or teetering on the brink, and relying on his overdraft protection to kick in money and asked if it wasn’t irresponsible to gamble away upward of $50,000 per year with such shaky finances. Medford agreed that it wasn’t necessarily responsible but that “I knew I had cash coming in.”

Ellis: “From where?”

Medford: “My sister and my brother.” Then he added, “I had a VISA card.”

The trial will reconvene today at 9 a.m. Ellis estimates another hour and a half of cross examination.

Medford