Johnson could testify in Edwards trial from home

Natalie Gott

Tuesday, April 4, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - After nearly three months of prosecution testimony, defense attorneys in the federal racketeering trial of former Gov. Edwin Edwards and six others finally got a chance to present some of their case to jurors.

But before calling their first witness Monday, attorneys and U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola spent eight hours debating whether a mistrial should be declared for one of Edwards' co-defendants.

At issue was how the trial should proceed now that co-defendant Bobby Johnson is at home recovering from quintuple heart bypass surgery that he had last week. Johnson, 54, will not be ready to return to the courtroom soon, his attorney, Pat Fanning said.

Polozola did not rule on the mistrial motion, but let defense attorneys begin presenting their case, as long as the evidence did not involve Johnson.

Johnson, Edwards, Edwards' son Stephen, state Sen. Greg Tarver and three others have been on trial since Jan. 10, accused in a series of schemes to manipulate the way the state awards riverboat casino licenses.

Tarver's attorney, Mary Olive Pierson, called the first defense witness, gambling board member, Judge Robert Fleming, who testified that he was never offered a bribe for his vote.

Fleming's testimony had nothing to do with what Johnson is accused of - extorting the former owners of the Belle of Baton Rouge and lying to the FBI.

Tarver is accused of getting a secret state police report on the casino applicants from gambling board member and co-defendant Ecotry Fuller and giving it to Edwards. Edwards allegedly passed the report to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., who was applying for a license to build a riverboat in Bossier City.

Fleming said he learned after the gaming board approved DeBartolo's license application in 1997 that Edwards had asked board member Ralph Perlman about DeBartolo's project.

When prosecutor Mike Magner asked Fleming if he was aware that Edwards asked Perlman to vote for the DeBartolo project, Fleming said "that's not the way (Perlman) described it." He did not elaborate.

Attorneys spent most of the day, however, debating whether the trial should proceed or if a mistrial should be declared on Johnson's behalf.

Polozola had considered postponing the trial at least until Monday because he said Johnson's doctors said they believed Johnson might be ready to participate in the trial by next week. However, Johnson's would have to participate via satellite from home.

Johnson would be connected to the courtroom either through a teleconferencing system so that he could see and hear the courtroom proceedings and jurors could see his face or just so that he could hear what was occurring in the courtroom, Polozola said.

Polozola also said he would consider appointing Johnson an attorney who would sit at home with him as he watched the court proceedings. The attorney would be there if Johnson needed to get a message to Fanning or needed guidance.

Polozola said he appoints an attorney for rowdy inmates so that one attorney could stay in the courtroom and the other could be in the cell block with the client.

Fanning said he opposed having to represent his client via satellite.

"There's not a lawyer in America that wants to put a defense on that way," Fanning said.

Fanning said he has had trouble finishing telephone conversations with Johnson because Johnson gets so upset that he has not been able to attend court since March 21 because of his heart problems. Johnson wants to testify, Fanning added.

"I can't imagine anything that is more distasteful than getting on the phone and telling him his case will go forward next week," Fanning said.

Prosecutor Todd Greenberg argued against a mistrial and pointed to a letter Fanning sent to the court in September 1999 that showed Johnson had six blocked arteries and surgery was the only way to treat it.

"He sat through the whole trial, he heard all the evidence against him and then he decided to go have the same surgery he needed six months ago," Greenberg said.