Estridge jury set for deliberations

WISE - Following final arguments by the defense and prosecution and jury instructions, a Wise County jury is expected to begin deliberations today to decide if a retired mail carrier assisted a scheme to steal absentee ballots during the 2004 town elections in Appalachia.

The trial previously........

Defense tries to shift suspicion from mail carrier to postmaster
Published 10/13/2006 By STEPHEN IGO

WISE - The defense attempted to shift suspicion away from former mail carrier Don Estridge and toward Appalachia's former postmaster as the Appalachia election fraud trial resumed Tuesday.

Estridge is accused of handing over absentee ballots to conspirators who then forged them to steal victory in the 2004 Appalachia town election.

Attorney Walt Rivers, representing Estridge, opened his defense Tuesday after Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee rested his case following the testimony of a final witness, U.S. Postal Service Inspector Brett Brumbaugh.

Brumbaugh testified that the federal investigation into allegations of stolen absentee ballots during the 2004 town elections is ongoing.

The first defense witness called by Rivers on Tuesday was James "Freddy" Poff, a mail clerk at the Appalachia Post Office currently assigned as an officer-in-charge of the Keokee Post Office. Poff testified that former Appalachia Mayor Ben Cooper was a frequent visitor to the workroom floor at the post office in 2004, a violation of Postal Service rules.

The postmaster of the Appalachia facility in 2004 was Pat Cooper, Ben Cooper's brother.

Poff said the first time he knew there was an investigation into the 2004 town elections that would involve the Appalachia Post Office was when Pat Cooper told him investigators "were coming" to interview workers and that another mail clerk in the facility had already been questioned. He said Pat Cooper told him investigators "we're going to be fishing around to find out if Ben had been out on the workroom floor."

The next day, Poff said the postmaster told employees he was planning to retire. Several days after that, Poff said the postmaster went to work shredding papers in his office.

"It was pretty well going nonstop," Poff said of Pat Cooper's paper-shredding task. "I don't know how many days, but several days."

At some point, Poff said Pat Cooper asked Poff what he intended to tell investigators. Poff said he told Pat Cooper "the truth."

Poff said the postmaster went into his office and wouldn't speak to him the rest of the day.

Under cross-examination by McAfee, Poff said he and the other mail clerk were a little jealous that their families could not access the workroom floor while Pat Cooper's brother could. He denied telling an investigator that he believed Ben Cooper "hounded" Estridge about absentee ballots in the weeks prior to the election.

One morning, Poff said Ben Cooper inquired of postal workers "in general" about absentee ballots.

McAfee produced Poff's signed statement to Virginia State Police Senior Investigator Walt Parker in which Poff said Cooper specifically asked Estridge if any absentee ballots were in the morning's stash of mail from Bristol.

Poff admitted he considers Estridge and Estridge's family friends of his but told McAfee that he was "not trying to help (Estridge) out" by altering his testimony in court from the statement he gave Parker.

"I just know (Estridge) wouldn't do anything like that," Poff said.

On the re-cross, McAfee accused Poff of attempting to "spin" his testimony around so it wouldn't damage Estridge.

McAfee also asked Poff why he asked for a copy of his statement from the prosecution on Monday. Poff said he may have misplaced the copy given him last year. McAfee asked Poff if Estridge's attorney "might be who you misplaced your copy with?" When pressed by McAfee, Poff acknowledged he gave that copy to Rivers sometime last year.

Rivers next called Laura Bowers. She said she got recruited as a Ben Cooper slate election volunteer because she was displeased with then-Town Manager Vern Haefele. Bowers said she asked Ben Cooper the best way to get rid of Haefele, and getting the Ben Cooper slate elected was his response.

She said Ben Cooper told her that, if elected, Cooper would wield power with a 3-2 voting edge on the Appalachia Town Council, Haefele would get fired and Cooper would appoint himself town manager. Then Bowers said Cooper promised that he would see to it she got reimbursed $1,800 for a sewer problem at her home that Haefele required her to fix at her own expense, although she felt it was the town's responsibility to repair.

Bowers said she met with Ben Cooper, Ben Surber and Dude Sharrett "many times" to discuss campaign strategy.

Surber and Sharrett were indicted as co-conspirators in the election fraud scheme along with Ben Cooper and nine other individuals, but Estridge is the only one to stand trial because all the others - except for a former police officer - have signed cooperation agreements with the prosecution.

During those strategy sessions, Bowers said she heard Surber, Ben Cooper and Sharrett on separate occasions say, "Pat has us covered at the post office," but she didn't know what that meant at the time. She said Estridge's name was never brought up.

Bowers said she had no inkling of a plan to steal or tamper with absentee ballots. She said her role was minimal and boiled down to helping transport voters to the polls on election day.

Dude Sharrett picked her up in a van with Indiana tags the morning of election day - the van was later acknowledged to belong to Dude Sharrett's brother, Kevin Sharrett - and they made three trips together to transport voters to the polls, Bowers said. Dude Sharrett had a list of voters with notations next to their names, she said, that denoted whether the voter was to receive six-packs of beer, cigarettes or snack items during the voter transportation runs.

Ben Cooper handed cash to Dude Sharrett and, later, Kevin Sharrett, who took over driving duties after the third trip, she said. It was this money Bowers said was used to buy voters pretty much whatever they wanted at a convenience store, although most voters primarily went for tobacco products.

The only time Bowers said she became suspicious that something wasn't on the level on election day was when an elderly woman was transported to the polls in the van. The woman was not allowed to vote at the polls because poll workers told her she'd already voted by absentee ballot, Bowers said, and the woman was surprised and confused by the revelation. Bowers said Ben Cooper and Dude Sharrett told her to "be quiet" and to "get (the woman) what she wants and get her home."

Bowers said she presented the woman with some Little Debbie snack cakes and some drinks and escorted her home. Bowers said she didn't think buying tobacco products or other items was illegal, she merely considered that it was "just dirty politicians buying votes" and no big deal.

During her trips fetching voters with Kevin Sharrett, Bowers said he tried to recruit her into selling drugs for him for $2,000 a month. She said Kevin Sharrett called her several times after that with the recruiting pitch and told her they didn't have to worry because with the Cooper slate elected, Surber would protect them as head of the police department and "Pat Cooper has us covered in the post office" because that's how Kevin Sharrett intended to ship illicit drugs to Bowers.

After the investigation began up last year, Bowers said Ben Cooper and Surber made threatening comments to her to keep her quiet. She said Ben Cooper told her to "take care of yourself. Watch what you do."

Dude Sharrett drove around her home relentlessly, she said, as did Cooper and Surber. Bowers said she called Wise County Sheriff's Department Investigator W.C. Darnell about the problem, and when they were chatting on her porch "the Sharretts, Ben Cooper and Ben Surber started driving by."

She said seeing Darnell on the premises ensured "I didn't have that problem again."

She said the drives by her house "wasn't trouble. It was just intimidating, I guess."

On cross-examination, Bowers told McAfee the reason her statement to investigators did not include Ben Cooper and Surber telling her that Pat Cooper "has us covered at the post office" was because it was 12 pages long and she didn't know everything that was in it or possibly left out.

McAfee got her to agree the statement is seven pages long. Also, Bowers' statement to investigators did include Kevin Sharrett telling her that Pat Cooper had them covered at the post office, but only in regard to Kevin Sharrett's alleged drug dealing recruiting pitch and not related to the tainted 2004 election.

"If I left something out" of her original statement, she told McAfee, "I'm not adding to it now."

The defense continues its case with more witnesses scheduled to be heard today.

Trial day 1 recap......

Witnesses try to link mail carrier with absentee ballots
Published 10/13/2006 By STEPHEN IGO

WISE - Testimony by Owen Anderson "Dude" Sharrett Jr. and Owen Anderson "Andy" Sharrett III on Friday linked retired mail carrier Don Estridge to just a single absentee ballot, and then only to inform them the parcel was en route to be delivered to its intended recipient.

Dude Sharrett, the former Appalachia parks and recreation director, is Andy Sharrett's father. The prosecution continued its case during Friday's segment of the Appalachia election fraud trial targeting Estridge, who is accused of diverting absentee ballots into the hands of election fraud conspirators.

Since the trial began Wednesday following Tuesday's selection of nine women and five men to serve on the jury, Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee and Assistant Special Prosecutor Greg Stewart have mounted a circumstantial case against Estridge as the necessary co-conspirator inside the Appalachia Post Office with the means and motive to intercept absentee ballots for the 2004 Appalachia town election.

Andy Sharrett and his father have testified that Andy was a reluctant candidate, having lost a Town Council bid in 2002, but was talked into running by Dude Sharrett in order to protect the town jobs held by Dude and Andy's mother, Belinda Carolyn Sharrett, who was employed as a bookkeeper in Town Hall. Andy Sharrett said Friday his father employed "a big sob story" to compel him to join former Mayor Ben Cooper's slate for the 2004 elections.

Cooper has been accused by Dude Sharrett on the stand of being the kingpin of the election fraud conspiracy. Estridge has maintained his innocence.

His defense includes casting suspicion on Cooper's brother, the former postmaster of the Appalachia Post Office, Pat Cooper. Pat Cooper testified Thursday and denied any knowledge or involvement in the scheme.

During cross-examination of Dude Sharrett on Friday by Estridge's attorney, Walt Rivers, Sharrett said a pre-election strategy meeting at his home included himself, Betty Chloe Sharrett Bolling, Belinda Sharrett, Andy Sharrett, Ben Cooper and "Mister Estridge." Those attendees are accused fellow co-conspirators in the plot. Dude Sharrett said others attended, but they were not among the 14 people indicted.

Under questioning by Rivers, Dude Sharrett was not as certain Estridge attended the meeting, which he said primarily focused on Ben Cooper assigning election day duties such as handing out literature at the polls or transporting voters to and from the polls.

"I think (Estridge) was there. I'm pretty sure he was there. Best I can recollect, he was there," Dude Sharrett told Rivers.

Rivers asked if Dude Sharrett ever heard Ben Surber - a former titular head of the town police department also indicted in the conspiracy - and/or Ben Cooper say "we got the post office covered with Pat Cooper, or words to that effect?"

Dude Sharrett said he never heard Surber or Ben Cooper say that.

Rivers had Dude Sharrett again go over how he and his son, Andy, acquired a neighbor's absentee ballot, that of Lloyd Collins. As he did on Thursday, Dude Sharrett said he and Andy Sharrett were sitting on their porch when Estridge came by delivering mail. Dude Sharrett said Estridge waved an envelope at the Sharretts and told them "‘I've got Lloyd Collins' mail ballot." Dude Sharrett said he went back inside his house when Andy Sharrett went to Collins' house to deal with the ballot.

Dude Sharrett said his wife has told him that she accompanied Andy Sharrett to Collins' house that day, but he doesn't believe she did.

In any event, Dude Sharrett testified Friday that "Don Estridge has never give me anything" in response to Rivers inquiring whether Estridge ever handed over a stolen ballot directly to him.

On Thursday, Dude Sharrett testified that about 20 absentee ballots appeared under a table on his porch, and a couple more appeared on the seat of his pickup truck that he left parked at Town Hall while at work.

On Friday, Andy Sharrett testified that ballots seemed to appear on their porch "about the time" Estridge made his mail deliveries, but no direct link to Estridge and the stolen ballots appearing at the Sharrett home was established during testimony on Thursday or Friday.

Andy Sharrett said Friday that when he signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors and took the stand on Friday, it was because he was "expected to tell the truth about what happened ... the whole truth."

As for Collins' ballot, Andy Sharrett said he and his father were sitting on the porch when Estridge approached on his mail delivery route. As was his custom if he saw Estridge delivering the mail, Andy Sharrett said he went to the gate. He said Estridge gave him the Sharretts' family mail, and as Estridge walked away the mail carrier turned and said, "I've got Lloyd's mail ballot."

Andy Sharrett said he watched Estridge knock on Collins' door, go briefly inside and back out, then resume his route. Andy Sharrett said he walked down to Collins' house, knocked and heard Collins reply, went inside and saw the ballot parcel on a coffee table. Collins was in a bedroom, Andy Sharrett said, because he was ill, and Andy Sharrett said he called to Collins that he had Collins' mail ballot and approached the bedroom with the ballot.

Andy Sharrett said Collins told him he wasn't feeling up to dealing with the ballot at that time and to return later. Andy Sharrett said he returned later and helped Collins fill out the ballot. Dude Sharrett testified Friday the Collins ballot was just about the only one of the many he and his family had a part in handling in an "honest" fashion before the 2004 elections.

Andy Sharrett said he was campaigning with Ben Cooper one day when they spied an absentee ballot in someone's porch mailbox. Andy Sharrett said Cooper told him that "if Don was working that ballot would never make it back to (the general registrar's office) in Wise."

A little later he testified that whenever stolen ballots showed up at the Sharrett home "it was usually the time Don came by the house" making the rounds as a mail carrier.

As did his father, Andy Sharrett told Rivers that Estridge never passed any ballots to him.

Also testifying Friday were Wise County Sheriff's Investigator W.C. Darnell and Virginia State Police Senior Special Agent Walt Parker for his second time on the stand. Darnell's testimony largely centered on interviews with Estridge, during which Darnell expressed surprise that Estridge fingered himself as a suspect rather than Pat Cooper or some other individual with access to the mail.

Darnell said when he asked how the Sharretts knew to go to Collins' house to deal with an absentee ballot, Estridge declined to provide an answer.

Darnell said when he went into his first interview with Estridge, it was with a "70 percent belief" that Estridge could clear himself of suspicion and help point investigators to the postal insider who was stealing and handing absentee ballots to the conspirators.

"He didn't give me the opportunity to get beyond him," Darnell said. "I was hoping he would name somebody else (as a suspect)."

Parker testified about the large number of victimized voters on Estridge's mail delivery route and the manner in which falsified Request For Assistance forms at the polls led investigators to Bolling. Charges against her include illegally "assisting" voters at the polls who weren't eligible for assistance in order to ensure they voted correctly.

Parker said during an interview with Estridge, Estridge could recall only once when Ben Cooper - who witnesses say frequented the post office work floor - asked Estridge if he had any absentee ballots to deliver. Parker said Estridge told investigators "sometimes I would say yes, and sometimes I would say no." He said Estridge did not explain how he knew if he had absentee ballots if he never looked at his pre-sorted mail until he was actually on the route delivering the mail.

Parker said Estridge denied involvement in the scheme.

Also testifying Friday was Crystal Turner Chandler. She said she wasn't interested in town elections but got enrolled as a voter by Dude Sharrett before the 2004 elections. She said a van driven by a man she did not know picked her up, as well as other residents of Inman Village, for a ride to and from the polls on election day.

She said an older woman she never met before - Bolling's signature was on the Request For Assistance form - met her outside the polls, then accompanied her to the voting booth and told the then-19-year-old who to vote for. She said Dude Sharrett promised that she and other voters would get beer or cigarettes, or "just, you'd get something out of it."

James Robbins, a postal worker at the Appalachia facility, testified that Ben Cooper's early morning visits to the town post office became "more frequent" in the weeks before the 2004 elections. Robbins said he overheard a conversation between Ben Cooper and Estridge involving where certain people lived in town, but never heard any mention of absentee ballots.

The verdict....... today's news.

Jury convicts retired Appalachia mailman
Published 10/13/2006 By STEPHEN IGO

WISE - A Wise County jury on Thursday found retired Appalachia mail carrier Don Estridge guilty of three of four counts in connection with the Appalachia election fraud conspiracy scandal. The jury recommended six months in jail and a $2,500 fine on each count.

Circuit Judge Tammy McElyea accepted a motion by Estridge's attorney, Walt Rivers, to allow Estridge to remain free under the terms of his existing bond and set a Jan. 11, 2007, sentencing date. A pre-sentencing report will be completed for the court by Jan. 11. Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee had no objection to Rivers' motion.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for less than 21/2 hours before entering the verdicts of guilty of conspiracy to prevent citizens from their free exercise to vote, conspiracy to steal absentee mail ballots, and violating the absentee voting procedure.

A sentencing option on each count was a maximum 10 years in prison, but jurors opted for far less harsh measures for the 63-year-old ordained minister, husband of nearly 40 years and father of five surviving children - a son was murdered by a co-worker in 2000.

McAfee said convicting Estridge was not the sort of case where prosecutors and police investigators share "high-fives all around" upon hearing the verdicts.

"This is a sad, sad thing all the way around," he said afterwards. "There are a lot of victims here. There is no celebration by the prosecution. Everywhere you look there are victims."

He said Estridge's family members are victims. He declined to say Estridge was a victim by allowing himself to get sucked into an election fraud conspiracy.

"He lived a life of impeccability before this came up," he said of a man with a good reputation in the community. "But there was a brief period of life where he engaged in very sinister activities." McAfee said "There is no joy in Muddville. I don't know that there are any winners in all this."

Estridge's attorney, Walt Rivers, said he didn't agree with the jury's verdict but had to respect it.

"I still feel my client is not guilty, but I respect (the verdict)," Rivers said. "Twelve people get pulled off the street and have to face making a terrible decision. I'll not say I don't disagree, but I respect it. I just pity the remainder of the (election fraud conspiracy) defendants."

Assistant Special Prosecutor Greg Stewart provided the opening shot of the prosecution's two rounds of closing arguments on Thursday. He said the conspirators "had to figure out a way to intercept" absentee mail ballots, and the trail of circumstantial evidence led to Estridge.

Thirty of the 57 stolen ballots went missing from Estridge's mail route, and 20 of them "showed up" on Dude Sharrett's porch, Stewart said. The Sharrett home is on Estridge's old mail route, Stewart said, "and who better not to be noticed (dropping off stolen ballots) than the mail man?"

Stewart said everyone in a democratic society is victimized by election fraud, "and the most victimized people were those 57 people in Appalachia whose votes got stolen." He urged jurors to speak "in a loud, clear, unanimous vote for justice, and find Mr. Estridge guilty."

In his closing, Rivers mounted a meticulous and robust defense on behalf of his client.

Rivers explained Estridge's contradictory testimony on Wednesday, while under cross-examination by McAfee, as a matter of an unsophisticated but honest man who is "not a professional witness" and can easily get rattled in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable and unjustifiable circumstance.

"Maybe (Estridge) does get a little confused or flustered," Rivers said of a client who is "not a jet-setter or a sophisticate ... but neither is he a liar and neither is he a thief and neither is he a (conspirator)."

Rivers attempted to pick apart the threads of the prosecution's circumstantial case, and then link those threads of suspicion to bind Appalachia Postmaster Pat Cooper, brother of former Appalachia Mayor Ben Cooper. Ben Cooper has been described during the trial as the "ringleader" and/or "kingpin" of the election fraud scheme.

Rivers referred to the fact Pat Cooper was not truthful with the postmaster's supervisors in Bristol about his brother's unauthorized yet repeated appearances on the work room floor of the Appalachia Post Office, creating just one of many cracks in the foundation of Pat Cooper's credibility.

"Pat didn't want anyone to know (his brother Ben) was on the work room floor. Why? That's a key question you've got to ask yourselves," he told jurors.

Rivers called Pat Cooper "the logical suspect. He should have been indicted."

Rivers said his client was "part of a plan to offer up Don Estridge as a patsy" in case the scheme unraveled in order to protect Pat Cooper. He said the odd circumstances surrounding the Lloyd Collins ballot - delivered by Estridge to Collins' home against postal service regulations because Collins had a post office box - was at the direction of Pat Cooper.

"If (Estridge) was dumping ballots (at the Sharrett home) why didn't (Estridge) just hand (Dude or Andy Sharrett) one more?" Rivers asked jurors. Instead, his client delivered the Collins ballot to Collins' home, as directed by Pat Cooper, even though doing so was contrary to postal service rules.

He called the timing of Pat Cooper's decision to retire and subsequent document-shredding spree in January of this year "an amazing sequence of events, folks." Rivers told jurors that "when you consider all the timing, consider all the evidence, it smells funny."

Rivers said Ben Cooper is "flat-out guilty" of the conspiracy, as are Ben Surber, Dude Sharrett, Andy Sharrett, Belinda Sharrett, Adam Sharrett, Betty Chloe Sharrett Bolling "and I may have missed a Sharrett or two," but that Estridge's only role in the conspiracy was as "Ben Cooper's insurance device. The perfect patsy" set up by Ben Cooper to save his brother if things unraveled.

"The only mystery is, why is Don Estridge on trial, and why isn't Pat Cooper on trial?" Rivers asked jurors. He said when jurors put together the pieces of the puzzle as promised and delivered by the prosecution "the picture of a postmaster might appear."

Rivers said there is "doubt, there is reasonable doubt, there is beyond reasonable doubt" that Estridge had anything to do with the scheme.

"We demanded proof," Rivers said, "and we got unsupported theory. That's all."

McAfee's closing attempted to reweave the threads of the case around Estridge after Rivers' attempt to wind them around Pat Cooper. McAfee reiterated the circumstantial evidence that he said could only lead a reasonable person to conclude that Estridge was involved in the plot to divert absentee ballots into the hands of the conspirators.

McAfee said Rivers' closing argument was "a distortion of the evidence" but defending his client is Rivers' job. The defense attorney's scorn of the testimony by Dude and Andy Sharrett when it implicated his client, and endorsement when it helped his client, is a matter of Rivers "trying to have it both ways."

He said the testimony of Dude and Andy Sharrett implicating Estridge should be considered by jurors as truthful because they have nothing to gain by falsely implicating the retired mail carrier.

"They have no reason to invent a lie" about Estridge, McAfee said, because if they do "it actually backfires, because the wrath of the commonwealth will come down upon them," referring to the cooperation agreement Dude and Andy Sharrett signed with prosecutors.

As for Pat Cooper, "Was he ever a suspect? You better believe he was. We're not idiots over here," McAfee told jurors. However, as the investigation proceeded and the evidence mounted against all who have been charged, McAfee said the evidence "can't possibly fit" Pat Cooper but did lead to and entangle Estridge.

McAfee said if Pat Cooper "is the evil postmaster, the diabolical postmaster," why was one contract mail carrier - Jamie Fritz, who has yet to be charged - needed to hand conspirators about 15 mail ballots at Inman Village, and why was Ben Cooper inquiring of Estridge on the work room floor about absentee ballots?

McAfee referred to repeated references to jurors by Rivers, "Where is Ben Cooper?" during the trial. McAfee said Ben Cooper "is the kingpin of this conspiracy" and there is a five-year federal prison sentence attached to the theft of every single mail ballot. He implied Ben Cooper might be employing the Fifth Amendment to fend off potential federal charges in an ongoing federal investigation involving the Appalachia Post Office.

Besides, McAfee said if Rivers wanted Ben Cooper to testify, all Rivers had to do was subpoena the former mayor and reputed mastermind behind the conspiracy. McAfee said it was Estridge who testified Wednesday telling Pat Cooper the Lloyd Collins ballot "will come back to haunt us," McAfee reminded, and that Estridge on the stand Wednesday admitted providing Ben Cooper insider information about the mail.

McAfee said when investigators asked Estridge "the bottom line. Who did this?" Estridge's response was, "Yeah. Me," as the most likely suspect, instead of fingering Pat Cooper. "Mr. Estridge participated in some measure in what happened in Appalachia," McAfee told jurors.

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