Edwards defense says the government’s case is “gossip, innuendo and lies”

Natalie Gott

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 10:28 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Prosecutors built their racketeering case against Edwin Edwards on "gossip, innuendo and lies" and there is no evidence on which to convict the four-term former governor, his defense lawyer told the jury today.

In his last statement to jurors before they begin deliberations next week, Daniel Small accused the government of making sweetheart deals to coax false testimony from small witnesses. And he played down the significance of secretly recorded tapes that prosecutors say bolster their case.

On Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Letten cast Edwards as "the man behind the curtain" working the controls of a corrupt extortion enterprise that shook down applicants for riverboat casino licenses.

Today, Small carried the "Wizard of Oz" analogy a step further.

"The government would like to click their heels and wish real hard," Small said. "Wishing real hard doesn't make it so."

"We do not in this country convict someone on gossip, innuendo and lies," he said.

Former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. was chief among the prosecution witnesses who told prosecutors what they wanted to hear, Small said.

DeBartolo testified under a plea agreement that he paid $400,000 in cash to Edwards out of fear that Edwards would obstruct his riverboat license application in 1997.

Small said the government's own tapes reveal nothing of the sort, and prove that Edwards was actually highly supportive of the DeBartolo application.

Closing arguments for Edwards' codefendants were expected to take the rest of the day and part of Thursday, followed by prosecution rebuttal argument. After a three-day weekend, the jury is expected to get the case Monday.

On Wednesday, prosecutors claimed in closing arguments that they "unmasked a terribly corrupt governor" whom they called a cheat, a liar and a phony.

Edwards' "insatiable greed," coupled with his "silver tongue" and arrogance, led him to create a greedy criminal enterprise that he ran from behind the scenes while his son, Stephen, managed the operation, prosecutors said.

The object, prosecutors said, was to extort millions of dollars from applicants for Louisiana riverboat casino licenses before, during and after Edwards' final term as governor, which ended in January 1996.

"The greed never stopped," Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Harper declared Tuesday.

Edwards, the only defendant to take the witness stand, said last week the money he and the others sought was for legitimate legal work and consulting services.

One of the state's most colorful politicians, famed for his gambling jaunts, reputed womanizing and quick wit, Edwards faces a prison sentence of up to 350 years if convicted on all of the 27 counts in his indictment. At age 72, conviction on even a few counts could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

Nevertheless, during closing arguments, Edwards demonstrated the cool demeanor he has characteristically displayed during four decades in public life. He rocked in his chair, rested his face in his hands and chuckled occasionally at a prosecutor's remark.

Edwards was tried twice in the mid-1980s on federal racketeering charges involving a hospital and nursing home venture. Edwards acknowledged making $2 million from the deal, but said it was legal and that he was not in office at the time. The first trial ended in a hung jury and the second in an acquittal.