Edwards says he never received money from former casino owner

Natalie Gott

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 12:12 p.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Former Gov. Edwin Edwards denied that he extorted a former casino owner, but said he briefly considered running a different illegal deal to get money from him.

"It's not the first time in my life I thought of something and then realized on sober reflection that it's not the thing to do," Edwards, 72, said during his second day on the witness stand in his federal racketeering trial.

Most of the Wednesday's often combative testimony involved Edwards' financial relationship with former Treasure Chest casino owner Robert Guidry. Early in the 3-month-old trial, Guidry testified under a plea agreement he was forced to pay Edwards and two others as much as $1.5 million for help in getting a riverboat casino license.

Edwards, his son, Stephen, their friend Andrew Martin and four others are on trial in U.S. District Court. They are accused of taking part in a series of extortion and bribery schemes involving the licensing of riverboat casino before and after Edwards' fourth and final term ended in January 1996.

The trial began Jan. 10. Edwards was to return to the stand this morning but his cross examination was delayed as attorneys argued over whether he should be allowed to use notes on the stand. He first took the stand Tuesday. His cross examination began Tuesday afternoon and continued Wednesday.

Edwards and prosecutor Jim Letten clashed over Guidry's credibility, as well as the significance of Edwards' son's fingerprint on an envelope stuffed with cash, and interpretations of secretly made tapes of Edwards' private conversations.

Guidry had testified that he tossed a bag with a $65,000 cash payment into Stephen Edwards' car on April 8, 1997.

Letten asked Edwards if that transaction took place.

"Neither I nor Mr. Santini, who was following us, saw that," Edwards answered, a reference to FBI agent Geoffrey Santini's testimony that he never saw the exchange even though he was staking out the meeting.

Letten asked if Edwards got a $33,000 share from that transaction.

"He didn't get it, so I didn't get it," Edwards answered.

Letten then noted that on April 28 - 20 days after the alleged payoff - FBI agents seized an envelope filled with $33,000 in cash from Edwards' safe. Stephen Edwards' fingerprints were on the envelope, Letten said.

"What an unfortunate coincidence my son had his fingerprints on an envelope in my safe," Edwards said.

Another brief but pointed exchange centered on the importance of whether co-defendant Andrew Martin used the word "get" or "getting" on a secretly made tape.

"I hate to have my whole life hang on a couple of words," Edwards said.

Martin used the phrase during a Feb. 27, 1997, taped conversation, in which the men talk about renting a tugboat to Guidry at inflated rental fees. They also discussed inventing work and charging Guidry for it.

"Then you've got some showable income," Edwards said on tape.

They discussed the plan, Edwards said, only because Guidry owed Stephen and Martin money for legitimate lobbying, legal and consultant work that Guidry had not paid.

"Bobby Guidry wasn't paying us extortion money," Edwards said. "I was looking for some vehicle for Bobby Guidry to start paying my son and Andrew, and I was looking to get a little of it myself."

Martin also is heard on the tape saying, "you get 30-30-30." Letten asked whether that was a reference to the approximate payments the men were receiving from Guidry.

Edwards said he had no idea what Martin was talking about.

Then he said prosecutors overlooked the fact that Martin used the word "get," instead of "getting."

It was evident, Edwards said, that Martin was referring to what the men would make on the boat deal, not on what prosecutors said the men already were getting from Guidry.

Edwards also denied Wednesday that he ever worked out a plan with another defendant, Cecil Brown, to take payoffs from a group of Alton, Ill., investors who were seeking a casino license.

The men testified that they paid Brown tens of the thousands of dollars to be their consultant on the project mainly because he boasted of his relationship with Edwards.

On taped conversations, Brown is heard telling the men that he and Edwards are partners in the deal.

"I would have stopped him in a New York second if I heard that," said Edwards, who added that he never authorized Brown to speak for him. The men never received a license.