Defense focuses on mundane in Ford trial { John Ford TN Waltz trial }

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 4/17/7 | Trevor Aaronson

[SmithL]

Building an entrapment case while clearly trying to overwhelm jurors with dozens of tapes and transcripts, defense attorney Michael Scholl belabored point after point about mundane conversations in former state Sen. John Ford’s trial this morning.

The taped discussions including Ford, FBI undercover agent L.C. McNeil, federal informant Tim Willis and others covered food, movies, nightclubs, hotels, shopping and traffic, among other everyday topics.

Advertisement As the recorded conversations were played, few of which related even remotely to the bribery charges against Ford, many jurors took notes.

Testifying for the third day today, McNeil became clearly annoyed after having to listen to what he viewed as irrelevant tapes of humdrum conversations needed for him to build a relationship with the Memphis Democrat. "There has not been any pertinent information in the tapes played this morning," McNeil told Scholl.

Scholl returned several times this morning to themes of his defense, including the amount of money the FBI spent on its investigation of the politician and the many lies McNeil told Ford while posing as a corrupt businessman from Atlan

[SmithL]

Sure, overwhelm the jury with hours of irrelevant trivia. That tactic sure helped Susan Polk.