[Tennessee Waltz - Shelby] County official pleads in corruption case

MEMPHIS — Shelby County Commissioner Michael Hooks Sr. pleaded guilty Monday to a charge from the Tennessee Waltz public corruption investigation.

Hooks was accused of taking $24,000 in payoffs from FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking a contract with county government. He pleaded guilty to one count of a two-count federal indictment, admitting that he took a bribe during the sting operation.

Hooks is one of 11 people, including five current or former state lawmakers, charged in the investigation code named Tennessee Waltz and built around a fake company called E-Cycle Management that was seeking favors from government.

Hooks' plea before U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen came on the day his trial was scheduled to begin.

The extortion and bribery charges in Hooks' indictment carried a maximum punishment of 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines, but his plea deal with prosecutors should result in much lighter punishment.

Hooks is the second elected official to plead guilty, and his plea gives Tennessee Waltz prosecutors their sixth conviction.

It's beginning to really smell bad up in Memphis town! Seems like most the black elected officials either have their hands out for payoffs, or are already in jail or under indictment. Where are the so-called clergy yelling about this ripoff of the taxpayers? Are all black politicians there corrupt? Sure looks like it to me.

"I asked a friend of mine what he thinks will happen in the “Tennessee Waltz” indictment of Dixon, who allegedly accepted a little less than $10,000 as a bribe for the FBI-directed sham company, E-Cycle.

My friend didn’t hesitate.

“In Memphis?” he asked.

“Are you kidding?”

“No,” I said.

“Well, “ he went on. “Here’s what I predict: No jury in Memphis, if it’s 50-50 (black and white), is going to ruin a black man for $9,000 dollars or whatever the amount was.”

I thought about that and wondered about his pronouncement.

Why would it matter? I thought. If it’s $10 dollars or $10 million, it’s taking money for a purpose that is against the law. It’s against everything I know. Why would you have to put a price on selling your integrity and honesty? If it’s $1 it’s enough for me to send any person down the road to oblivion.

My friend said he had to move on to another meeting, but before he left there was one other prediction he had.

“And if Harold Ford (Sr.) comes to town right before John (Ford, another indicted member of the Tennessee state senate who is accused of accepting $50,000 or so in an alleged bribe for his vote on E-Cycle) goes to trial, the jury will let him walk. Bet on it…..”

Well, I don’t bet and it’s a sorry state of affairs if my friend is right. I don’t want to believe it, but then we’re in Memphis.

What do you think? Let me know."

- Mike Fleming 600 WREC Host
http://www.600wrec.com/pages/programs/mike/blog/

I think Fords don't lose elections or go to jail in Memphis.

The dead rise up to vote for Fords, after all, most of the dead reside at the Ford Family Funeral Home.

When the Butcher Brothers pillaged the S&L industry during the `80s, many people were financially ruined. When their house of cards came tumbeling down, many of the rich, famous, and politically well-connected from across the state were arrested, convicted, and sent to jail, their own lives in ruin. That is all except Ford, Sr. Since he was THE black man caught in the scandal, it was obviously racism at work, and the Memphis jury let him walk.

And that's how it goes in Shelby County.

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