Defense attorney: Most defendants just cannon fodder

Wednesday, May 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Opening arguments were heard Tuesday in the federal racketeering trial of former senators Larry Bankston and B.B. "Sixty" Rayburn, both of whom are accused of taking graft from a video poker truck stop operator.

The trial is the first stemming from an investigation outlined in 1995 FBI affidavits that alleged bribery involving lawmakers, lobbyists and gambling interests.

Also on trial are Slidell video truck stop operator Fred Goodson; his daughter, Maria Goodson, who helped run her father's business; Goodson's business attorney, Carl Cleveland; and Goodson's accountant, Joe Morgan.

"Ex-Senators Bankston and Rayburn are the brass rings. Mr. Gibson and these others are cannon fodder," said Michele Fournet, attorney for Fred Gibson.

She said Goodson just stumbled into an investigation of the Legislature and didn't do anything wrong.

The government contends Bankston and Rayburn, who served 48 years in the Louisiana Senate, conspired with Goodson to scuttle a 1995 local-option referendum on video poker.

Much of the case is expected to hinge on secretly recorded conversations, including an FBI bug planted in Bankston's law office in Baton Rouge.

Through his post as chairman of the Senate oversight committee on gambling, Bankston's job was to make sure no legislation got out of committee that would affect Goodson's planned video poker empire, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Hipwell said in his opening arguments.

"You will see his shocking willingness to sell his office," Hipwell said.

But Lewis Unglesby, an attorney for Bankston, told jurors that Bankston is innocent: "As far as alleged corruption, you can sleep well. There is none."

Unglesby said legislative records show that Bankston pushed a tough local option bill in 1995 that would have permitted parishes to vote out video poker machines. The measure passed the Senate with both Bankston and Rayburn voting in favor, but was killed by the House.

That legislation would have killed 11 other planned truck stops Goodson was working on at the time, Unglesby said.

A similar measure passed in 1996.

"Your job is to judge people by their actions, not their words," Unglesby said. "Don't judge Larry Bankston on what others say he might mean, but on what he does."

Prosecutors allege Bankston agreed to accept $100,000 in stock from one of Goodson's video poker companies in exchange for getting Goodson's video poker truck stop reopened after state police shut it down in July 1995.

But there is no evidence among 8,000 recorded conversations that Bankston ever took a bribe from Goodson, Unglesby said.

"We have the facts versus suspicions. We have the truth versus accusations," Unglesby said.

Prosecutors contend that Rayburn was bribed through $28,000 in payments to an account with his children's initials and that he accepted a $2,500 check from Goodson just days before voting against a local-option bill. The defense contends the money was a campaign contribution, permitted by state law.

During his opening argument, Rayburn's attorney, Arthur "Buddy" Lemann, said Rayburn's votes in favor of video poker were designed to help the horse racing industry, which has the machines at racetracks and off-track betting parlors. Rayburn is a long time racing horse owner.

On the other hand, Rayburn generally voted against measures that would have helped truck stops such as Goodson's. Lemann also said Rayburn's son, B.B. Rayburn Jr., a former Washington Parish sheriff, went into business himself with Goodson and later brought in his two sisters.

"Sixty Rayburn did not sell his vote," Lemann said. "This old man who served his state so well did not sell his vote."

Both Unglesby and Lemann pointed out that it is not illegal for legislators to own video poker businesses and several have.

"The government has a lot of screens and smoke, like this is a dope deal," Lemann said. "It's not."

Twelve jurors and four alternates were selected Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance estimated the trial would take three to four weeks.

Hipwell told jurors this was "a case about corruption and bribery" which started with Goodson and Cleveland. Because of tax and other financial problems, Goodson put the names of his two grown children on his video poker machine license.

"Along the way, they obtained the help of two powerful senators, Larry Bankston and B.B. 'Sixty' Rayburn, by promising them a piece of the action," Hipwell said.

Hipwell told jurors that Ms. Goodson, her father and his accountant created fake legal and management fees in an effort to dodge a $550,000 tax liability in 1994. But Morgan's attorney, George Shadduck, and Cleveland's attorney, Anthony Marabella, said all of their clients' dealings were above-board and legal.

Marabella said much of the government's racketeering case will collapse because Cleveland and Goodson disclosed their interest and loans to the video poker business on state police applications.