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This is the day former state senator Roscoe Dixon is scheduled to report to federal prison. The Memphis Democrat was convicted in October and sentenced to five years and three months behind bars in the Tennessee Waltz public corruption probe. Dixon was convicted of taking payoffs to push for changes in state law supposedly wanted by a company called E-Cycle Management. The company was a fake, however, created by the FBI as part of its investigation. The investigation has led to indictments against eleven defendants, including five current or former state lawmakers and several local officials in Memphis and Chattanooga....

MEMPHIS — A former state senator convicted of bribery says he took payoffs on an installment plan and should face a lighter prison sentence than prosecutors suggest. At issue is whether former Sen. Roscoe Dixon, D-Memphis, took a single bribe or several. Dixon, 57, was scheduled for sentencing Friday on his conviction in the FBI investigation code named Tennessee Waltz. He is the first of five current or former state lawmakers to go to trial on Tennessee Waltz charges. The five bribery and extortion charges on which Dixon was convicted in June carry a statutory maximum of 90 years in...

Seven people, including five current or former state lawmakers, were busted as part of an FBI/TBI public corruption sting. The two-year undercover investigation was named “Operation Tennessee Waltz.” Capitol Hill Corruption: Roscoe Dixon Convicted Posted: 6/8/2006 2:01:00 PM Updated: 6/8/2006 2:34:44 PM A federal jury in Memphis convicted former state Senator Roscoe Dixon Thursday afternoon of extortion for taking payoffs in the Tennessee Waltz corruption investigation. The Democratic former legislator had been charged with seeking and accepting payoffs from E-Cycle Management, a fake FBI company that offered bribes to state and local officials across Tennessee. He was charged with taking...

MEMPHIS — A federal jury started deliberating Wednesday to decide whether a former Tennessee senator was guilty of bribery and extortion in a public corruption case. Memphis Democrat Roscoe Dixon is the first state lawmaker to go to trial in the Tennessee Waltz case. He’s among five current or former state lawmakers charged with taking payoffs from E-Cycle Management, a fake FBI company that offered bribes to state and local officials across Tennessee. Dixon is charged with taking $9,500 in bribes to push for a change in state law E-Cycle supposedly wanted to gain a business advantage. Testifying in his...

MEMPHIS - Former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon began testifying at his Tennessee Waltz corruption trial Monday but was asked no questions about the charges against him before court ended for the day. Dixon contends he was set up by overzealous FBI agents and government witnesses trying to save themselves by testifying against him. He says he thought the government's chief undercover informant was a lobbyist for a legitimate company, not a crooked businessman offering bribes. "There are more lobbyists than legislators ... Everybody's got lobbyists but poor people and working people," said Dixon, who testified on his personal background and...

MEMPHIS — A former state senator charged in an FBI bribery sting complained that his job as a lawmaker paid too little, according to a recording played for a federal jury Monday. "I need to get in the big league, man," Roscoe Dixon said on a recording played at his bribery and extortion trial. L.C. McNeil, an FBI agent testifying under his code name, said the recording was made in August 2004 when he was talking with Dixon about the senator’s desire to leave the Legislature. McNeil was pretending to be vice president of E-Cycle Management, a company seeking legislative...

Lt. Gov. John Wilder and state Senator Jeff Miller said they were subpoenaed today by an attorney for Tennessee Waltz defendant Roscoe Dixon to testify in Dixon’s upcoming federal trial in Memphis. Wilder was served with the subpoena Wednesday morning. Wilder told reporters he thinks there are other subpoenas that have been issued to lawmakers and more to come, though he could not name names. “I wasn’t surprised to get it,” Wilder told reporters Wednesday morning. Miller acknowledged being subpoenaed this morning, though he told reporters he wasn't sure why. "I have absolutely no idea why I was subpoenaed," Miller...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon is undecided if he will go to trial to fight public corruption charges, his lawyer said in court Tuesday. Outside the courtroom, defense lawyer Walter Bailey refused to say if Dixon is talking with prosecutors about a guilty plea. Dixon is one of five current or former state lawmakers charged with bribery or extortion in a federal investigation called Tennessee Waltz. At a routine hearing for setting court dates, Judge Jon McCalla asked Bailey if Dixon expected to go to trial. "We're not sure yet," Bailey said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim DiScenza...

A state senator already under scrutiny for ethical allegations, was indicted today on bribery charges along with three lawmakers, a former lawmaker and two others in a federal probe of his business dealings. Tennessee state Sen. John Ford, a Memphis Democrat from a powerful political family, is charged with the five others for taking bribes from undercover investigators to influence legislation concerning a sham company set up by the FBI. Ford and former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon appeared in federal court today handcuffed and shackled at the ankles, according to The Tennessean newspaper. "He's shocked as you can imagine," Ford's...