Closing arguments begin today in Edwards trial

Natalie Gott

Tuesday, April 18, 2000 | 10:24 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - After 3 and 1/2 months of testimony, prosecutors in former Gov. Edwin Edwards' federal racketeering trial rested their case and will begin closing arguments today.

U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola gave the government 6half hours - all day today - to present its arguments. Prosecutors can follow up with rebuttal testimony on Thursday, after defense attorneys end their eight hours of arguments.

Before sending the jurors home Monday evening, Polozola issued a stern warning: They should not begin deliberating until after he reads to them the jury charge, either Thursday afternoon or Monday morning. The jurors will not deliberate over the three-day Easter weekend.

Prosecutors ended their case Monday, after calling Internal Revenue Service agent Don Semesky, who testified that Edwards spent in the range of $704,000 to $872,000 more in cash than he reported making in the years 1986 to 1997.

The defense rested Friday, but Polozola allowed Semesky to rebut Edwards' testimony last week that indicated much of the cash he spent came from gambling winnings.

Edwards, his son Stephen, state Sen. Greg Tarver and four others are on trial, accused of taking part in a series of schemes to manipulate the licensing of riverboat casinos before and after Edwards' fourth and final term ended in January 1996. Their trial started Jan. 10.

Prosecutors say Edwards received the payoffs in cash and used evidence of his spending of large amounts of cash for big-ticket items to bolster their case.

Semesky used two different starting points to come up with the two different estimates of how much cash Edwards spent.

First, to get $872,000 in excess expenditures, Semesky credited Edwards with having $82,000 in cash on hand at the end of 1986 - a figure he derived from Edwards a year earlier in his trial on charges stemming from health care investments. Edwards was acquitted on those charges.

But Semesky also did calculations based on testimony in the current trial, in which Edwards said he always keeps between $250,000 and $500,000 in cash on hand at all times. That led to his lower estimate of $704,000.

Edwards' attorney, Dan Small, said Semesky's calculations were not accurate because they showed that Edwards had $380,000 of unaccounted cash that the FBI found when it raided Edwards' home.

Small said that was cash that Edwards received from former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and should have been included in Semesky's calculations of incoming cash Edwards received.

Semesky said the government did not include the figure in incoming cash because it believes the payment was illegal.

DeBartolo testified that Edwards threatened to cause problems with DeBartolo's riverboat casino application if DeBartolo did not pay Edwards $400,000.