Edwards to get new trial on some mail fraud counts

Melinda Deslatte

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000 | 4:55 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - A federal judge set aside three mail fraud convictions Wednesday in former Gov. Edwin Edward's gambling corruption trial because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in another case.

U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola threw out the mail fraud convictions - two against Edwards and his son Stephen and a third against co-defendant Bobby Johnson.

Prosecutors had agreed that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling nullified the three counts that were thrown out, but they didn't say if they would retry them.

"We haven't made a decision yet," U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan said outside the courthouse.

Polozola made the ruling without comment before hearing additional arguments on whether evidence used to support the voided convictions improperly influenced jurors on other matters in the case. The hearing was scheduled to continue Thursday.

Edwards, Stephen and three others were convicted in May of racketeering, extortion, fraud and conspiracy involving allegations they rigged riverboat casino licenses. The Edwardses were convicted of five counts of mail fraud. Johnson was convicted of one count of mail fraud.

In November, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate Louisiana gambling corruption case, involving a New Orleans lawyer, that federal mail fraud laws do not apply to state licenses that have not yet been awarded.

A license discussed in the Edwardses' gambling corruption trial was never awarded.

"This is a very complicated case that has been affected by another very complicated case," Edwin Edwards said.

Defense attorneys Wednesday sought to use the Supreme Court ruling as a means to get their clients out of all the charges in the casino licensing scandal, which included counts of extortion.

Prosecutors fought to limit the scope of Polozola's ruling to only three mail fraud counts.

"What the defendants are trying to do essentially is to parlay the Supreme Court's decision into a get-out-of-jail-free card for all of the counts," said prosecutor Todd Greenberg.

The government admitted the ruling affected three mail fraud convictions and asked for new trials on those charges, but prosecutors said they presented an overwhelming amount of additional evidence to prove the other charges.

Greenberg said the case was primarily an extortion case and that the fraud counts were peripheral.

"To say a handful of counts permeated and affected the entire trial is not reality," he said.

Jim Cole, an attorney for Edwards and his son, argued that there was no way to tell what the jury used to determine its verdict.

"We can guess, we can suppose, we can try to divine, but we cannot determine without a reasonable doubt," he said.

But Polozola indicated he was not interested in reconsidering the entire case, noting that he was concerned primarily with three other fraud counts and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

"I'm not ruling yet, but the rest of these (counts) I think are really pretty stable," the judge said.

Each of the counts thrown out would have carried maximum sentences of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

If only a few were dropped, the Edwardses each could still face maximum sentences of more the 200 years in prison and several million dollars in fines, but federal probation authorities reportedly had recommended imprisonment for 11 to 14 years.

Polozola delayed the men's sentencing - originally scheduled for Wednesday - to hear arguments about the ruling. The judge said he would set a sentencing date after the hearing, if the convictions are upheld.

Outside the courthouse before Wednesday's hearing, Edwin Edwards told reporters that he believed the ruling would help his cause.

"The impact of the Cleveland case as determined by the Supreme Court certainly has a good impact on our case," Edwards said. "To what extent has yet to be determined, but everybody agrees that it has been helpful."

Former Edwards aide Andrew Martin, Eunice cattleman Cecil Brown and Johnson, a Baton Rouge businessman, were convicted along with the Edwardses on a variety of charges in the case.

The men plan to appeal their convictions if they do not receive a new trial.

Polozola was scheduled to hear arguments Thursday on additional motions for a new trial for the men, including a motion for a new trial from Johnson, who underwent heart surgery during the trial and never returned to the courtroom.

Polozola also said he planned to hear testimony about allegations against the jury's foreman. The judge said the court's marshals investigated the matter and he saw no need to remove the foreman, but he planned to call three witnesses to further discuss the issue Thursday.