DeBartolo sticks to his story

Kevin McGill

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 2:07 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Edward DeBartolo Jr. would not be shaken Tuesday from his claim that former Gov. Edwin Edwards extorted $400,000 from him in 1997, even as Edwards' lawyer played tapes and read transcripts of what sounded like perfectly amiable conversations between the two.

"I can sit here and you can harass me and you can try and make me change my mind, but what happened on March 5th and what happened on March 12th is done. And that's why I had to plead guilty," DeBartolo sternly told defense lawyer Daniel Small.

DeBartolo, former owner of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, was on the stand for less than a day and a half but his testimony was among the most damaging the government has presented in a racketeering trial that began Jan. 10. Edwards, his son Stephen, state Sen. Greg Tarver, D-Shreveport, and four others are the defendants.

In 1998, DeBartolo pleaded guilty to failing to report the alleged extortion. He testified under a plea agreement.

On Monday, he said Edwards demanded an extortion payment from him on March 5, 1997, saying DeBartolo's license for a lucrative riverboat casino license would have "a serious problem" if he didn't deliver. DeBartolo then said he paid the money to Edwards in cash on March 12.

Defense attorneys say the money was legitimate payment for Edwards' help as a consultant.

Prosecutors said it was payment in one of several alleged extortion schemes they have outlined in the trial, all involving the awarding of riverboat casino licenses during and after Edwards' fourth and final term, which ended in January 1996.

Neither of the key meetings between Edwards and DeBartolo on March 5 and March 12 of 1997 were among thousands of hours of conversations involving Edwards and others that federal investigators secretly taped in the probe that led to DeBartolo's 1998 plea agreement and Edwards' subsequent indictment.

Noting that, Small tried to use the conversations that were caught on tape to belie DeBartolo's extortion claim.

On virtually every tape, DeBartolo is heard eagerly asking the former governor for a progress report on his license application before the state gambling board. Edwards usually is reassuring about the prospects for a license approval - never threatening.

Tapes made after the license was approved on March 13, 1997, indicate continued friendly relations between the two as they discussed whether the law will require them to seek a referendum before the floating casino can be placed in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. The men exchange pleasantries and talk about getting together to see a Mike Tyson boxing match.

DeBartolo insisted that Edwin Edwards had a sinister motive in all of the conversations. Edwards' constant references to the people he knew on the gambling board and in the Legislature were his way of showing he still had power to help or hurt the casino project, DeBartolo said.

"That's his way of telling me he's got his hands and all his tentacles where he needs them," DeBartolo said.

Small asked DeBartolo about his late father's three-decade business relationships and friendship with Edwards, and whether he believed any of those relationships were improper. "I can't say, that. I have no idea," DeBartolo replied.

Small asked why, if the $400,000 payment to Edwards was illegal or improper, he reported it to the IRS on a 1997 tax form.

"The $400,000 was for actual compensation between you and Edwin Edwards, wasn't it?" Small asked.

DeBartolo's reply: "The horse was out of the block at this time."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Magner later asked DeBartolo about numerous other lawyers and consultants DeBartolo family businesses had employed in other states for work on local option elections in other states. Magner asked whether DeBartolo paid any of them $400,000 cash, and whether any ever took a payment and stuffed it into a money belt to get through an airport - as DeBartolo claimed Edwards did on March 12, 1997. "No, sir," DeBartolo replied to both questions.

In DeBartolo's plea bargain, he agreed to testify in the trial, to pay up to $1 million in fines and was placed on two years' probation. He has given up his casino license. He also was barred from running the 49ers for a year and eventually lost control of the team to his sister.

"Has this situation with Mr. Edwards cost you dearly, sir?" Magner asked DeBartolo on Tuesday.

"Yes, sir," DeBartolo replied. He said he never won back control of the 49ers, adding, "It has caused me to be totally estranged with, really, my only surviving relative, my sister."

And, Magner asked, "are you now a convicted felon?"

"Yes, sir," DeBartolo said.

Also Tuesday an FBI fingerprint expert noted that the fingerprints of Tarver and codefendant Ecotry Fuller, a member of the state gambling board, were found on a confidential report about applicants for a riverboat license. Edwards is accused of secretly providing the report to DeBartolo.

Later, state gambling board chairman Hillary Crain took the stand as prosecutors appeared close to winding up its case.

Crain said that in early September 1996, gambling board member Ralph Perlman called to say he had been invited to lunch by Edwards.

"Ralph - I think he said to me - he's interested in the 15th license," Crain said.

Crain said he told Perlman that it was his business who he ate lunch with but, Crain said, he was watching the situation closely.

Crain said his impression at the time was that Edwards could have been involved in any of three riverboat casino applications, one of them being DeBartolo's.

Perlman has not attended a gambling board meeting since 1998 at Gov. Mike Foster's request because of the Edwards investigation. Jurors have already heard Perlman discussing what prosecutors say was a licensing matter with Edwards in a March 1998 tape. On the tape, Perlman tells Edwards he will do what is best for the community.