Martin talked about deal with Guidry, ex-partner says

Natalie Gott

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000 | 8:47 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Three of the next witnesses in Edwin Edwards' federal racketeering case will testify about statements Riverboat Gaming Commission members made regarding Edwards' involvement in choosing who would be awarded riverboat licenses, federal prosecutors said.

The witnesses will include former commission chairman Ken Pickering, Gretna Mayor Ronnie Harris and Bernie Kline, who sought - but did not receive - a riverboat license for the Gretna Belle.

Edwards, his son, Stephen, and five others are on trial for what prosecutors claim was a series of schemes to illegally profit from riverboat casino licenses. Prosecutors claim Edwards, a four-term former governor, used his power to carry out the schemes.

U.S. District Frank Polozola will allow the witnesses to testify about statements made by commission members Floyd Landry and Sam Gilliam, who the judge on Tuesday ruled could be classified as unindicted co-conspirators.

The judge said prosecutors would have to provide more information before he could also classify commissioners Gia Kosmitis and Veronica Henry unindicted co-conspirators.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said testimony by the three witnesses will back up statements that Edwards drew up a list of riverboats he wanted approved and passed it out to commission members. Consequently, Greenberg said, the four voted unanimously to approve all of the boats on Edwards' list.

Defense attorneys argued that four commission members should not be characterized as unindicted co-conspirators because they were merely trying, through normal political processes, to chose the best boats to get the licenses.

Also on Tuesday, a former businessman who worked with defendant Andrew Martin said Martin told him of a deal he had to get 3 percent of the gross revenue from Robert Guidry's riverboat casino.

Gregory Duvieilh, testifying under a plea agreement, said Martin kept a little black book in which he computed what the take might be from the Treasure Chest Casino. The take was to be divided up between Martin and the Edwardses, Duvieilh said.

Duvieilh said Martin claimed they were getting the money because they had helped Guidry get a license for the Treasure Chest casino.

Duvieilh (pronounced Doo'-vee-aye) pleaded guilty last year to making a false statement to the Internal Revenue Service in a separate case involving Martin but not related to the current trial.

Duvieilh said he and Martin together started a tugboat rental company and, while working together, Martin told him about the deal with Guidry.

Duvieilh also said Martin would write various multimillion-dollar figures in the little black book and compute what 3 percent of the take would be.

Duvieilh said Martin's alleged deal with Guidry had not been in writing, although "Andrew was telling me he was thinking about trying to get it put into writing."

Duvieilh's testimony meshes to an extent with earlier testimony from Guidry, who said Martin had wanted a percentage of the revenue from Guidry's casino in exchange for help in getting a license. Later, they settled on a flat $100,000-per-month in a deal Guidry said he sealed in a face-to-face meeting with Edwards in 1994.

Guidry had also testified that he later sought Martin's help in getting the state fire marshal to move back a deadline for replacing a barge used by Treasure Chest and that Martin demanded a percentage of the boat's revenue plus a job.

In court last week, on secretly made audio tapes of conversations between Martin and Edwards, Martin is heard expressing displeasure over his inability to get some sort of contract with Guidry.

Duvieilh said Martin told him about the deal with Guidry so that Duvieilh could seek the money for Martin's family if anything ever happened to Martin.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Harper asked Duvieilh how he would enforce the contract if something did happen to Martin.

"I would have to rely on the word of Bobby Guidry," Duvieilh said. "My understanding is that the illegal contract is not enforceable."

As for the little black book, Duvieilh said that after the riverboat case became public, he looked at it and discovered pages with Martin's computations were gone.

Defense lawyers assailed Duvieilh's credibility, confronting him with a statement he had signed while seeking financing for the tugboat company. In the statement, Duvieilh assured lender John Georges that he knew of no extortion plan.

He also said he knew of no plan to charge anyone above the cost of normal rental fees for a tugboat. Last week, on the secretly recorded tapes, Edwards and Martin are heard discussing renting a boat to Guidry at higher-than-normal prices, rather than have him withdraw noticeably large sums of cash from a bank.

Duvieilh later said he changed his mind about the statement to Georges and never had it notarized, as he had once planned.

Duvieilh also admitted Tuesday that when he was questioned by Martin's lawyer, Sonny Garcia, about becoming a witness in the case, he said he knew of nothing illegal that Martin had done.

Duvieilh's plea last May carries up to one year in prison and $100,000 in fines. Martin, who still faces trial in that case, and Duvieilh, were accused of incorporating a business called Iron Man Fisheries to hide Martin's assets from the IRS.