- Former city councilman Edmund Ford shakes hands with a television cameraman on his way back to the courtroom as the jury begins deliberations in his bribery trial at the federal building Tuesday afternoon.
Posted on 05/20/2008 1:19:04 PM PDT by SmithL
A federal court jury is scheduled to begin deliberations this afternoon in the extortion and bribery trial of former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr.
Federal prosecutors say the 52-year-old mortician accepted $8,900 in bribes from a political consultant in 2006 for his votes and influence in a development project, removal of a city billboard moratorium and the replacement of the chairman of the Board of Adjustment.
“Each of these payments was made for official acts,” federal prosecutor Tom Colthurst told jurors as he showed secretly recorded videos of consultant Joe Cooper giving cash to Ford. “You also see Mr. Cooper providing additional money once Mr. Ford makes progress on these particular projects. . .The only explanation here is money for influence.”
Cooper testified that he wore hidden recording equipment and acted under FBI supervision in hopes of getting a sentencing break later for his moneylaundering conviction year.
Ford’s defense attorney, Michael Scholl, called Cooper “a low life” criminal who manipulated Ford into accepting money from him by calling them car payments and then bringing up council business in an effort to make them look like bribes.
He argued that Ford had never taken money before and that the FBI had no basis to investigate his client.
“This is not a traffic ticket,” Scholl told the jury of seven women and five men. “This is this man’s life. . .Mr. Ford is an innocent man.”
Jurors are expected to get the case later this afternoon after the government’s rebuttal closing argument and hearing jury instructions from U.S. Dist. Court Judge Samuel H. Mays Jr.
The case, dubbed Mainstreet Sweeper, also resulted in the indictment of then-City Council member Rickey Peete, who pleaded guilty last year to accepting $14,500 from Cooper for the same voting issues. Peete is serving a 51-month prison sentence in Montgomery, Ala.
- Former city councilman Edmund Ford shakes hands with a television cameraman on his way back to the courtroom as the jury begins deliberations in his bribery trial at the federal building Tuesday afternoon.
(2) Edmund Ford is uncle to wannabe-senator, Harold Ford, Jr.
Fords and crooked politics go hand in hand in Memphis.
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