Former Lincoln Park executive takes stand

Eric Tucker

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- One of two former Lincoln Park executives charged with conspiring to bribe a speaker of the Rhode Island House with up to $4 million through his law firm said Tuesday he was uncomfortable with a proposed performance bonus to the race track's lawyer and sought guidance on the suggestion.

Nigel Potter, former chief executive of Lincoln Park's London-based parent company, Wembley PLC, said he consulted with a lawyer in New York City about the proposed payment and discussed the appropriateness of the idea with the corporation's board of directors.

"It wasn't something that I was enthusiastic to do," Potter said.

Potter was questioned for about four hours by his lawyer, Leonard O'Brien, as the defense opened its case in the week-old retrial in U.S. District Court in Worcester, Mass. The government rested Monday after calling just two witnesses.

Potter is accused of conspiring to funnel up to $4 million to the law firm of former House Speaker John Harwood. Prosecutors have said the proposed money was concealed as a performance bonus for Harwood's law partner, Dan McKinnon, a lawyer for the park.

The park and its former general manager, Daniel Bucci, are also charged in the alleged scheme, which prosecutors say took place in 2000 and 2001 and was designed to win legislative support for more video lottery machines at the Lincoln, R.I., track. They also allegedly wanted to build opposition to a rival casino proposed by the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

The payments were never made, and neither Harwood nor McKinnon was charged.

Testifying in his own defense, Potter described an August 2000 meeting in which he said Bucci proposed paying a _$1 million performance bonus to reward McKinnon for his work with the park. The meeting ended with no decision on whether to make the payments, Potter said.

The management meeting took place shortly after Bucci sent a memorandum expressing concern that Wembley was "acquiring a reputation for being ungrateful" and discussed the importance of establishing political relationships. Bucci also wrote that a casino in Newport, R.I., had paid its lawyers a $1 million performance bonus.

Potter said he was puzzled by the implication that Wembley was seen as ungrateful or the company failed to do something it was expected to do.

"It just struck me as a strange thing to do, to make such a payment," Potter testified.