Co-defendant will have bypass surgery; trial continues

Natalie Gott

Thursday, March 23, 2000 | 12:02 p.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Edwin Edwards' federal racketeering trial will continue even though one defendant will have open heart surgery as early as Friday, a judge ruled Thursday.

Tests Wednesday showed that 54-year-old Bobby Johnson needs an immediate quadruple byass, attorney Patrick Fanning told U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola.

Fanning asked the judge to recess court at least until he knew Johnson's full medical report. Polozola refused, saying court will proceed because Johnson is not involved in the part of the government's case being presented now.

Johnson is one of seven defendants, including Edwards and Edwards' son Stephen, who have been on trial since Jan. 10.

They are accused in a series of schemes to manipulate the way the state awards riverboat casino licenses. The schemes allegedly began before Edwards took his fourth and final term in office in 1992 and continued after he left office in 1996.

Prosecutors are currently trying to prove that Edwards extorted $400,000 from former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr. in 1997, while DeBartolo was seeking the state's final riverboat casino license.

It now appears that DeBartolo, the government's star witness, will not get to the stand until next week. The government has indicated a couple more FBI agents and one of DeBartolo's aides will testify before he is called.

Johnson left court early last week and has been missing parts of the trial since then. He has consistently complained that his blood pressure is high from the stress of the trial, and has been taking medicine in an attempt to avoid surgery.

Fanning told the court that he got word about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday that Johnson needs an operation. "He may have the surgery by tomorrow, or, not tomorrow, by early next week," Fanning said.

Federal prosecutors opposed Fanning's request to stop the trial, even temporarily. "We oppose any delay in proceedings based on Mr. Johnson's health condition," Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said.

Polozola said he will reconsider the situation when the current part of the trial is over and will decide then whether to continue the trial, delay it or remove Johnson's trial from the others.

He noted that if any witness is asked about Johnson, his attorney may question that witness.

Johnson's name quickly came up once testimony resumed Thursday, when Edwards' attorney, Dan Small, questioned FBI agent Geoffrey Santini about fingerprints on money seized from Edwards' home and safety deposit box.

Small asked whether Johnson's fingerprints were found on any of the cash. Fanning asked to speak with the judge, who told jurors that medical problems kept Johnson out of the courtroom.

"He's not trying to be disrespectful to anybody," the judge said.

Santini said neither Edwin nor Stephen Edwards' fingerprints were found on the confiscated money. Nor were DeBartolo's or government witness Bobby Guidry's fingerprints found, he said under questioning by Small.

Other fingerprints - of people not related to the case - were found, he said.

"Hundreds of fingerprints were found on the documents, but none of them matched up to individuals that we discussed before," he said.

Small then tried to get Santini to say how much the government spent on the wiretaps. "Didn't the government spend over $1.4 million on these wiretaps in this case?" he asked.

Federal prosecutors objected, and Santini did not have to answer.

"Wasn't this the most expensive wiretap in the whole country?" Small asked.

Prosecutors again objected.

The cost of the investigation was irrelevant, Polozola said.