Jury: Former governor, co-defendants should forfeit nearly $2.6 million

Natalie Gott

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 10:55 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. - A day after former Gov. Edwin Edwards was convicted of racketeering, a jury on Wednesday recommended that he and four co-defendants forfeit nearly $2.6 million of the money they got from businessmen applying for riverboat casino licenses.

Edwards was convicted Tuesday with his son, Stephen Edwards, and the three others of racketeering and fraud for schemes that took place during and after the elder Edwards left office in 1996. Two other defendants, including a state senator, were acquitted.

It is up to U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola to make a final decision on how much each should pay. Prosecutors had sought a forfeiture of $3.1 million.

In addition to the forfeiture, the former governor could be fined $4.5 million and sentenced to up 250 years in prison. A sentencing date wasn't immediately scheduled.

"Depending on how the forfeiture verdict comes out, by selling some assets that I have and marshaling some assets, I should have close to enough to pay it," Edwards said outside court.

Dan Small, Edwards' attorney, had appealed for leniency in imposing the forfeiture, saying the conviction doesn't mean the defendants received any money.

"All we ask now is that you go back and walk through this final task on each item and decide which of these specific pieces of money has the government proven beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.

Edwards was convicted of 17 of the 26 counts against him, including two racketeering charges.

He faces a June trial on federal charges he helped rig a generous deal in 1996 for the head of a failed insurance company liquidated by the state. He also faces charges of trying to illegally record the conversations of FBI agents who were investigating him in 1997. No trial date has been set in that case.

Edwards served two terms as governor in the 1970s but left office because of a state ban on serving three straight terms. He was elected again in 1983 and in 1991.

The government's star witness was former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., who testified that Edwards demanded and got a $400,000 cash payoff for help in getting DeBartolo a casino license in 1997.

Prosecutors characterized Stephen Edwards, 45, as a manager of the extortion scheme, while three others allegedly acted as front men: Andrew Martin, a former aide to Edwards; Cecil Brown, a cattleman and longtime friend; and Bobby Johnson, a contractor and longtime friend.

Brown and Martin were convicted on all counts. Johnson was found guilty on nine counts. Stephen Edwards was convicted on 18 of 23 counts.

A member of the state gambling board, Ecotry Fuller, was charged with giving state Sen. Greg Tarver a copy of a confidential state police report about casino-license applicants and lying about it to a federal grand jury. He was acquitted, as was Tarver, who had been accused of passing the report to Edwards for DeBartolo.

U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan said at a news conference the conviction proves Louisiana citizens are fed up with corrupt politicians.

"I think the jury was saying that the citizens of this state expect honesty and integrity in state government," Jordan said.