Johnson on tape: from demanding to conciliatory

Natalie Gott

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 3:30 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - At first he sounded demanding. But the Bobby Johnson caught on secretly recorded audio tapes played during Edwin Edwards' federal racketeering trial Thursday became more friendly as his hopes of getting a piece of a riverboat casino's action appeared to diminish.

The tapes, made over a period of months in 1994, have been played over the past two days to back up the testimony of Mark Bradley, a former vice president of Jazz Enterprises, who worked with the FBI to catch Johnson in an alleged extortion attempt.

Tapes played Wednesday hold the voice of a man demanding a piece of the action and threatening to scuttle Jazz's chances of getting a license from a state police agency headed by an Edwards appointee.

"I ain't being an iron a--, but I mean, I want a piece of it," Johnson is heard saying. "And I mean if I gotta go, you know, stop and get mine, I will, because I can get mine."

But tapes played Thursday were recorded as it became more apparent that Jazz would not give in to the demands. They hold the voice of a more conciliatory man, who assures Bradley that Jazz will indeed get its license.

"I started to bow out, but I got it done," Johnson tells Bradley in a May 10, 1994, conversation.

"I believed he was trying to take credit for Jazz ultimately getting a license," Bradley testified.

What role, if any, Johnson and Edwards played in the licensing of Jazz Enterprises remains unclear, but prosecutors say Johnson's demands constitute extortion, and that they were part of a more complex racketeering scheme that at various times involved Johnson, Edwards and five other men, all of whom have been on trial since Jan. 10.

On Wednesday, Bradley said he contacted the FBI in early 1994 after his initial contacts with Johnson. Bradley described how Johnson took him to the Governor's Mansion for a personal meeting with Edwards.

The tapes of Johnson's apparent threat, and another conversation in which he talks about splitting his share of the casino with two other people, were played to accompany that testimony.

On Thursday, Bradley testified that it became increasingly apparent that Jazz had a shot at a license without making a deal with Johnson.

In early May of 1994, state police announced they would bring in an outside consultant who would judge three riverboat casino proposals for Baton Rouge, Bradley said.

Bradley testified that Jazz officials believed that was a good step for them because it would put them on "a level playing field" with other applicants.

Jazz eventually won its license in mid July 1994. They never gave in to Johnson's demands for a piece of the action, or his subsequent requests for contracts to do work for the casino.

Unable to fulfill all of the promises it made to the city of Baton Rouge for development of the casino site, Jazz eventually sold out to Argosy Gaming, which now runs the casino.