The ongoing trial in Alabama stepped up a notch today when jurors were given the chance to hear some of the tapes that were made regarding vote rigging. State Senator Scott Beason is said to have taped conversations with entertainment mogul Ronnie Gilley when ex Governor Bob Riley ordered some raids on gambling venues but in particular that of the Country Crossing complex in Dothan.
Gilley, the owner of Country Crossing, decided to be a witness for the prosecution in this case even though he was embroiled in whatever was going on. It is believed that he made a plea-bargain deal in return for his testimony. Gilley was heard to state that ‘your governor’s raid was not well received’ on the tape. However, Beason came back with a reply that Riley was not his governor.
Beason further commented that Riley had fallen out of favour with him since he had overhauled the tax law plan. Voters nixed this in his first term as governor.
Beason admitted that he agreed to put on a wire to tape conversations, and tape any telephone conversations too, that he had with those who wanted to push the legalization of electronic bingo laws through congress. He said that the situation made him ‘uncomfortable’ when people started pressing him to help with the vote rigging exercise. He agreed to do what he could to catch the culprits, he said.
Further to all this the FBI investigated and arrested eleven people on corruption charges, nine of whom will be in court this month. This includes the owner of a dog racing track, Milton McGregor, a casino spokesman, two lobbyists who tried to push the votes through and four politicians who were in the senate when the this so called bingo bill was being discussed.
The draft legislator, Joseph Cosby, was said to be in McGregor’s pay when he helped to write the bills which aided McGregor’s operation of his casino etc.
Beason commented that he wanted a bill to allow voters to outlaw all gambling, but when it came back to him it exempted those facilities already operating. He said that of the fifty bills that he had seen to date, this was the only time a ‘mistake’ like this had ever been witnessed.
The judge in the case ruled that Beason could not use words like bribe, shakedown or kickback to describe anything to do with the defendants except where it connected directly to the time that he was making the recordings. The case continues.
Originally posted 2011-06-15 01:31:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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