Robert Guidry and the tales of the tapes

Natalie Gott

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - A defense lawyer in the Edwin Edwards racketeering trial today began trying to knock down former casino owner Robert Guidry's claims that he paid $1.5 million to get a casino license when Edwards was governor.

The payments were allegedly to be split among Edwards, his son Stephen and former Edwards aide Andrew Martin. All three are on trial along with four others accused in an extortion and bribery scheme involing riverboat casinos.

In questioning Guidry this morning, the defense lawyer for Stephen Edwards raised the possibility that Stephen's share of the money was for legitimate work Stephen did as an attorney.

Guidry at one point acknowledged that he paid Stephen Edwards roughly $90,000 specifically for legal advice and work regarding the Treasure Chest. That included a final $25,000 payment in 1993.

But Stephen Edwards continued doing work for the Treasure Chest into 1995.

Guidry said he felt Stephen Edwards owed him the work.

"I had already made the deal with Andrew Martin for $100,000 and I knew Stephen was getting some," Guidry explained.

"Are you saying that this was for legal work?" Cole asked.

"I can't say that," Guidry said, later adding, "I felt like he owed me something."

Guidry insisted, as he has since taking the stand last week, that the $100,000 payments were illegal, made solely to secure state approval of his casino.

He is testifying under a plea agreement.

Today's cross examination followed yesterday's playing of secretly taped conversations involving the Edwardses, Martin and Guidry.

Jurors heard one tape detailing Edwards' plans to rent a tugboat to Guidry at inflated prices so nobody would wonder why Guidry was paying out large sums of money.

"I'm worried about him every month, taking that out of some bank. If he ever gets checked, he's going to have a hard time explaining," Edwards said on Feb. 27, 1997, unaware that his office was bugged and his words were being recorded.

Edwards suggested that Guidry pay about $3,300 a day for tugboat rental instead of a going-rate of about $2,400 a day, the tapes say.

Guidry testified Tuesday that he paid the Edwardses and Martin up to $1.5 million in monthly installments of about $100,000 in return for Edwards' help in getting a license to run the Treasure Chest. The help came while Edwards was governor, although the payoffs allegedly began after Edwards' left office in January 1996.

Guidry said last week that he sealed the deal with Edwards in a Baton Rouge hotel conference room in 1994, in the middle of Edwards' last term. On Tuesday, Guidry testified that he went to Edwards' residence on Dec. 8, 1996, with one of the payments, and put it in the back of a sport utility vehicle parked at the house.

"I went to his house, and that's when I left the money in a carryall for him," Guidry said.

Guidry also testified that he had dropped off another payment by throwing a bag of $65,000 in cash through his car window and into Stephen Edwards' car window after a lunch meeting with the Edwardses.

That payment, made April 8, 1997, was the last payment he made, Guidry said. FBI agents raided Edwards' office and home later that month, and after that "everything was shut down," Guidry testified.

Other taped conversations apparently deal with Martin's alleged attempt to shake down Guidry when the Treasure Chest was having trouble with the state fire marshal's office.

Inspectors wanted to replace a barge used as a bridge at the Treasure Chest. Guidry said he could not meet a March 1995 deadline to replace it and was at risk of having to shut down the casino under pressure from the fire marshals.

Martin agreed to help Guidry, and eventually the deadline was extended, but he also demanded 2 percent of the profits and a job with the casino, Guidry testified.

When Edwards left office, Guidry said he met with Martin to try and get out of the deal to pay 2 percent.

Guidry said Martin replied: "Just like we can help you, we can hurt you. Just because we are out of office doesn't mean that we can't help or hurt you."

Guidry said his attorneys later advised him not to give Martin a job because state police were conducting a standard investigating of the Treasure Chest when Guidry decided to sell the boat.

In taped conversations, it becomes clear that Martin was upset because he did not get a contract and wanted to be paid.

"The son of a bitch owes me a lot of money," Martin tells Edwards in a November 1996 conversation.

In a Jan. 9, 1997, conversation in Edwards' office, Edwards is heard telling Martin: "There ain't nothing we can make him do."

Later he says, "We can't sue him."

Guidry pleaded guilty to an extortion charge for paying the Edwardses and Martin a total of $1.5 million to ensure state approval of the Treasure Chest. Guidry was fined $3.5 million and could face five years in prison. He said he made about $34 million with the Treasure Chest between 1994 and 1997. He sold the casino in October 1997 for $72 million to Boyd Gaming.