FBI didn’t trail Fields after seeing cash handoff

Natalie Gott

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - A secretly placed video camera in former Gov. Edwin Edwards' law office caught State Sen. Cleo Fields handling a wad of cash, but the FBI did not follow Fields to find out what he did with the money, an FBI agent testified today.

No agents were trailed Fields or searched his house after the alleged 1997 exchange because the FBI had too few people in the Baton Rouge area at the time, agent Geoffrey Santini told defense lawyers.

"We didn't, to my estimation, know where the money went," Santini said during cross-examination as testimony resumed in the gambling corruption trial after a four-day break.

Prosectutors have alleged that Fields passed on the money to state Sen. Greg Tarver in return for his help in getting Edwards a copy of a confidential gambling report.

Edwards then allegedly sent the report to Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner who was trying to get a license approved to run a riverboat casino.

The former governor; his son, Stephen; Tarver, and four others have been on trial since Jan. 10, accused of carrying out a series of schemes to manipulate the way the state awards riverboat gaming licenses.

The purported schemes allegedly took place before and after Edwards finished his fourth and final term as governor in 1996.

In this part of the trial, prosecutors are trying to prove Edwards extorted $400,000 from DeBartolo. Prosecutors say this scheme began in late 1996 and continued until 1997, when DeBartolo got a casino license.

Santini testified for three days last week before court was canceled Friday when a juror became ill. Prosecutors put Santini on the witness stand to decipher recorded conversations between Edwin and Stephen Edwards and DeBartolo that the FBI made using wiretaps.

On cross-examination from Stephen Edwards' attorney, Jim Cole, Santini admitted FBI agents did not wiretap all of Edwards' telephones and did not record all of his conversations during their investigation.

Cole contended last week in court that FBI agents may not have understood the complete context of the conversations prosecutors claim are incriminating because agents did not monitor all calls.

But his statements in court marked a sharp contrast to pretrial motions filed by defense lawyers. In those court documents, Cole and other defense attorneys asked for the wiretapped information to be struck from the case altogether.

Santini's testimony will lay the groundwork for DeBartolo's testimony, expected perhaps later this week.

DeBartolo's testimony will come days after he agreed to turn over his ownership of the San Francisco 49ers to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York. The deal, which ended a long feud among the siblings, was signed Saturday in Nashville.

DeBartolo stepped away from the team and left his seat on the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. board in December 1997 after he became ensnared in the Edwards' investigation. His sister assumed management of the team at that time.

York also will take over ownership of Louisiana Downs and the Edward J. DeBartolo corporate headquarters in Youngston, Ohio.

In return, DeBartolo gets real estate and stock holdings that were part of the family business.

DeBartolo pleaded guilty in October 1998 to failing to report a crime arising from the allegations that he paid Edwards $400,000 to ensure there would be no problems with his application for a riverboat casino license.

Edwards claims DeBartolo gave him the money for legitimate consulting work.