Edwards trial elicits more tales of suspected payoffs

Natalie Gott

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 1:27 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - There were more tales of suspected payoffs Thursday in former Gov. Edwin Edwards' federal racketeering trial as a former Players casino executive spent his second day on the stand.

John Brotherton told the jury that longtime Edwards family friend Ricky Shetler once described to him how he made payoffs to Edwards and his son Stephen.

Brotherton testified under an immunity agreement with federal prosecutors.

Shetler himself was set to testify later Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in 1998 to participating in an extortion scheme with Edwin and Stephen Edwards involving Players.

At issue in the trial, which began Jan. 10, are allegations that the defendants manipulated the state's riverboat casino licensing process in a series of bribery and extortion schemes before and after Edwards' final term as governor, 1992-96.

Brotherton said Shetler told him about the payments he made to Stephen Edwards in early 1996.

Brotherton recounted one conversation in which Shetler expressed anger because Stephen Edwards had failed to stop another riverboat casino from locating in the Lake Charles area, thus denying Players a monopoly.

Prosecutors say Shetler had told Players the Edwardses could provide a permanent monopoly in the area for $600,000.

Brotherton said Shetler also told him in that same conversation that Shetler would take half the money he received from Players and send it to the Internal Revenue Service. The rest of the money he would divide up into thirds. Shetler said he took one third and sent the remander to Stephen Edwards to share with his father, Brotherton testified.

On cross examination from Stephen Edwards' lawyer, Jim Cole, Brotherton admitted that he had never received any threats or demands for money from Stephen Edwards.

Cole noted Brotherton's testimony Tuesday and Wednesday included more examples of Shetler's alleged extortion schemes than Brotherton had earlier relayed to the federal grand jury that indicted the Edwardses or to state police in an earlier investigation.

For example, nowhere in previous statements had Brotherton quoted Stephen Edwards as saying Players was "stupid" for not hiring Shetler, Cole noted. Brotherton testified to that effect Wednesday.

Brotherton admitted under cross examination that most of the payments Players made to Shetler were negotiated through Players then-president Howard Goldberg and attorney Patrick Madamba and that Shetler never really knew how much money Shetler was receiving. Prosecutors have not decided whether to call Goldberg.