The Former Governor Edwin Edwards Update

[Warndalyn]

Edwards says prison likely

He plans to keep up appeals

By CHRISTOPHER BAUGHMAN
cbaughman@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer

Advocate staff photos by Bill Feig
A well-wisher greets Edwin Edwards on Monday as the former governor and his wife, Candy, head to a meeting of the Press Club of Baton Rouge, where Edwards spoke.
While vowing to fight his legal battle as long as he can, Edwin Edwards said Monday that he assumes that within 30 days he will be in a federal prison, where he might spend the rest of his life.

"If that's the fate that's bestowed upon me, then I accept it," the 75-year-old former governor who served four terms told a packed house at the Press Club of Baton Rouge.

Edwards' chances of serving the 10-year sentence he faces increased Friday when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in the riverboat casino corruption case.

Edwards said he will ask for a rehearing before all the judges of the 5th Circuit.

If the court refuses, Edwards said, he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take his case.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten of New Orleans said after Edwards' news conference that his office wants Edwards behind bars as soon possible.

His office filed a motion Monday with the 5th Circuit asking that U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola be allowed to order a date for Edwards to report to prison.

A jury in May 2000 convicted Edwards, his son Stephen Baton Rouge businessman Bobby Johnson, former aide Andrew Martin and Eunice cattleman Cecil Brown of shaking down riverboat casino license applicants.

Edwards insisted several times Monday that his conviction "was not a case of selling riverboat licenses."

Instead, Edwards said, the case was about three former friends who took plea deals from prosecutors in exchange for their testimony against him.

Edwards was talking about Richard Shetler, who worked for Player's Lake Charles casino; Robert Guidry, the former owner of the Treasure Chest casino in Kenner; and Eddie DeBartolo Jr., the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team, who spearheaded a group that wanted to open a riverboat casino in Bossier City.

The three testified against Edwards and the others during the four-month riverboat trial.

"I know in my heart of hearts that what happened to me is the result of former friends who changed their story," Edwards said. "When the tough times came, they decided to make a deal."



Former Gov. Edwin Edwards faces a packed house Monday at De La Ronde Hall while speaking to reporters and others at the Press Club of Baton Rouge.
While Edwards spoke, his wife, Candy, and his daughter, Anna, sat at a table near the speaker's podium at the De La Ronde Hall, wiping away tears.

His brother, Marion, and his wife, Penny, also sat at the table.

Like them, Edwards was in a somber mood. But he still was able to crack a joke or two.

When asked if he knew which federal institution he'd like to go to, Edwards didn't miss a beat.

"The U.S. Mint," he deadpanned to laughter.

Edwards said defending himself since the federal investigation began in 1996 has cost him, "off the top of my head, $2.5 million."

Along with paying for his defense and appeals in the riverboat case, he also paid for attorneys in a second trial in 2000 stemming from the same federal investigation.

Related story:
Legal actions control when prison term starts
Edwards, suspended Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown and another man were accused of rigging a sham settlement for a failed insurance company.

Edwards and the other man were acquitted; Brown was convicted of lying to the FBI.

Edwards said all the legal battles have wiped him out.

"I'm certainly a lot poorer than I was five years ago," he said.

"My best estimate is that I'll probably go to prison broke, but not owing anything."

Early in the federal investigation, Edwards said, there were discussions about a plea deal.

It would have meant his going to prison for two years and paying a $100,000 fine.

In exchange, Edwards said, he would have had to testify against DeBartolo, Guidry, Martin and the others.

The payoff for Edwards was that the deal would have allowed Stephen Edwards to stay out of prison.

Edwards said he would have done it "in a New York minute" in order to spare his son.

"But I walked away from it," Edwards said. "My son looked me in the eye and told me if you do that, I will blow my brains out, and he meant it."

Edwards said he learned about the 5th Circuit's ruling Friday while driving to visit Martin, who is in a federal prison in Mississippi. Martin was convicted in another trial. Cecil Brown also is serving time for a separate conviction.

Edwards said he had planned to tell Martin that their appeal in the riverboat case "is a cinch."

But about 30 minutes before he got there, Edwards said, his brother, Marion, called to tell him about the ruling.

After the press conference Monday, Letten called the former governor's performance "inane and vintage Edwin Edwards."

"He showed a clear and continued propensity to lie repeatedly and to fail to accept responsibility and to attempt to lay blame on everyone else," Letten said.

"He's obviously afflicted with terminal narcissism."

Johnson, the Baton Rouge businessman convicted with Edwards, said Monday that he, too, will press his appeal.

Johnson was found guilty of trying, but failing, to shake down Jazz Enterprises, which wanted to open a riverboat casino in Baton Rouge.

That venture is now the Argosy Casino in Baton Rouge.

During the trial, Johnson underwent bypass heart surgery. Polozola ruled that Johnson would continue to stand trial in absentia.

The 5th Circuit upheld that ruling.

"I guess I just got lambasted and railroaded throughout," Johnson said Monday. "As long as I got a breath, I will continue to appeal because I know I didn't do anything wrong."

Johnson was not at the Press Club, which Edwards said was probably the last news conference he will ever hold.

At the end, Edwards quoted a poem from Shakespeare.

Then he said, "Have a happy life," stepped away from the battery of microphones, sipped some iced tea and left with his family.

 

[Warndalyn]

Here's More: The Monitoring

Edwards monitoring requested

By BRETT BARROUQUERE
bbarrouquere@theadvocate.com
and CHRISTOPHER BAUGHMAN
cbaughman@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writers

Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig
Federal prosecutors want former Gov. Edwin Edwards to wear an electronic monitoring device, similar to the one pictured here, until he reports to prison. The device allows federal authorities to track how far the person wearing it goes from home.
Federal prosecutors want a judge to order Edwin Edwards to wear an electronic device that would monitor the former governor's movements until he reports to prison.

Prosecutors also asked U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola to restrict Edwards' travel to the Baton Rouge area and closely watch his financial transactions.

The requests, in a motion filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, also would apply to Edwards' son, Stephen, and Baton Rouge businessman Bobby Johnson.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld the May 2000 convictions of the Edwardses, Johnson and two other men on charges that they corrupted the state riverboat licensing process.

Prosecutors have asked that the Edwardses and Johnson be sent to prison soon. No date has been set for them to report to prison.

Edwards, who faces a 10-year sentence, said he will contest the monitoring request, which hadn't been ruled on as of Wednesday.

The monitoring equipment used by U.S. District Court here wraps around the ankle. If a person leaves a designated area without permission, the electronic device sets off an alarm at the federal probation office.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten of New Orleans said Wednesday that there now appears to be "an elevated risk of flight" with Edwards.

"I found out from authorities in Nevada recently that Edwin Edwards had deposited $50,000 with a large casino in Nevada ostensibly for the purpose of going there for the De La Hoya fight on Sept. 14," Letten said, referring to Oscar De La Hoya's scheduled bout against Fernando Vargas.

"The authorities in Nevada were concerned enough about that to call me, so I notified the district court. So we'll see what the district court does,'' Letten said.

Edwards said later Wednesday that he had planned to attend the fight but canceled the trip after the 5th Circuit's decision. He also denied depositing $50,000 with anyone.

Edwards, who is 75, said he has no intention of running and will continue to fight the convictions up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"If it is my fate to go to prison, I will go to prison, and I will abide by the rules," Edwards said. "I am a responsible person. I go by the rules."

Edwards said skipping out on the prison sentence would be a tacit admission of guilt.

"I will never consider that," Edwards said. "Furthermore, I would not give Mr. Letten the satisfaction."

Stephen Edwards, 48, was sentenced to seven years. He said authorities don't need to monitor him electronically because he won't flee if ordered to prison.

"I am not going to do something cowardly like that or make things worse for myself," he said. "It's just not in the realm of things I would do. It's just not. I'm not going anywhere until I'm told to go, and then I'm going."

He said he plans to spend every minute he can with his wife, Leslie, their children and with older children he has from a previous marriage.

"I've followed all the rules from the day we were convicted," he said.

Johnson, who faces five years and four months in prison, likewise said a monitoring device isn't necessary.

"I was born and raised in Louisiana," said Johnson, who is 56. "I mean, I'm not going anywhere. My family's here. My son's in school here."

In his written request to Polozola, Letten says monitoring the defendants would "assure their own safety as well as the safety of the public."

That assertion is based on comments made by Edwin Edwards at a press conference Monday in Baton Rouge, Letten said.

Edwards said he turned down a plea agreement before his trial that would have sent him to prison for two years and required him to testify against other defendants. The deal also would have spared his son, Stephen, any prison time, Edwards said.

"I ... talked to Stephen, and my son looked me in the eyes, and he told me, 'If you do that to save me, I will blow my brains out the day that you do it,'" Edwards said at the press conference. "And he meant it. And when he said that to me, it totally evaporated any further thoughts I had of trying to do that."

That statement "established that at least Stephen Edwards is capable of contemplating the ultimate drastic measures when faced with otherwise unacceptable consequences," Letten wrote.

After they were indicted in 1998, the Edwardses and Johnson were released without being forced to post bond. They were required to surrender their passports to the court, to have all travel approved and to report regularly to the probation office, which monitors people out on bail.

The two other men convicted in the riverboat case, Eunice cattleman Cecil Brown and ex-gubernatorial aide Andrew Martin, are already in prison. Brown, sentenced to more than five years in the riverboat case, is serving about four years after being convicted in March 2001 of shaking down Texas businessmen wanting to do business in Louisiana.

Martin, sentenced to more than five years in the riverboat case, is serving 44 months in a tax evasion case.


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