Fourth juror booted from Edwards case

Natalie Gott

Wednesday, March 29, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - A fourth juror was removed today from the panel hearing evidence in former Gov. Edwin Edwards' federal racketeering trial, leaving only two alternates.

U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola did not give any reason for dismissing Juror No. 350. But in the past week he has strongly warned jurors about discussing the case in public, telling them to walk away if anyone tries to talk to them about it.

He joked in court that the juror's seat - the fourth in the upper row - apparently is a "problem seat."

"I think that will be the third juror to sit in that seat," he said.

Jurors' names have not been made public. The dismissed panelist is a white woman who has a distant cousin who worked as a police officer at the Governor's Mansion while Edwards was in office.

She was replaced by a 54-year-old white woman who works as a technician and did not give personal information in front of the press.

Edwards, his son, Stephen, state sen. Greg Tarver, gambling board member Ecotry Fuller and three others are accused of manipulating the way the state awards riverboat casino licenses.

Prosecutors say they will finish their case by Thursday.

The head of the state riverboat gambling board testified Tuesday that, after Edwards was out of office, the former governor told a member of the state's riverboat gaming board to vote to award a riverboat casino license to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.

Board chairman Hillary Crain said Tuesday he learned of Edwards' directions to board member Ralph Perlman only after the investigation into Edwards was made public and Perlman had testified before the federal grand jury.

Crain said Perlman voluntarily shared his grand jury testimony with him.

"I asked him whether former Gov. Edwards asked him to vote for DeBartolo's project and he said he had," said Crain, who was to continue testifying today.

Crain's testimony Tuesday came hours after DeBartolo testified he paid Edwards $400,000 to ensure there would be no problems with his riverboat casino license application in 1997. Edwards was no longer governor at the time.

The state gaming board unanimously approved awarding the license to DeBartolo and partners Hollywood Casino Corp. DeBartolo gave the license back after he refused to testify to the federal grand jury in the case.