Witness: Stephen Edwards stymied effort to get Lake Charles casino license

BATON ROUGE, La. - Former Gov. Edwin Edwards' son Stephen accepted $25,000 from a group of St. Louis area investors who wanted him to kill legislation that would keep them from getting a riverboat casino license in 1993, one of the investors testified today.

But the legislation passed, the investors never got the license and Stephen Edwards never gave any indication that he actually did any work for the money, said the investor, Illinois attorney Russ Meyer.

Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor noted, a friend of Stephen's was already on the way to getting a license for a competing venture.

Gov. Edwards, Stephen Edwards, Eunice Cattleman Cecil Brown and four others are on trial in what federal prosecutors say was a series of illegal schemes to profit from the riverboat casino licensing process before and after Edwards left his fourth term in office in January 1996.

Meyer said Stephen Edwards advised against seeking a license for a Lake Charles casino during a January 1993 meeting at a Baton Rouge restaurant also attended by Brown.

Meyer said he couldn't remember why, but prosecutor Todd Greenberg pointed out that Stephen Edwards' friend, Ricky Shetler, was helping on a casino license application for a Players casino in Lake Charles. Shetler has pleaded guilty to conspiring to funnel $550,000 in cash, cars and furniture to the Edwardses and is expected to testify for the government later in the trial.

Players received a preliminary certificate of approval for a license from state police in March, 1993.

Meyer and several investors met with Stephen Edwards again on June 5. He testified Stephen Edwards showed a copy of a pending bill requiring Calcasieu Parish voters to decide whether casinos should be allowed to open.

Players, however, had received an exemption because of its preliminary license approval.

Stephen Edwards said he would lobby against the bill, and investor Eugene Redmon wrote him a $25,000 check.

But Meyer testified Stephen Edwards never told the investors what he did to fight against the bill. It was passed into law on June 14.

"It effectively prevented us from receiving a license," Meyer said.

On June 18, casino license applications by Meyer's group for Lake Charles and New Orleans were rejected by the Louisiana Riverboat Gaming Commission. At the meeting, chairman Ken Pickering said no more applications would be considered for Lake Charles because of the new law.

"The law had effectively granted Players a monopoly in Lake Charles, didn't it?" Greenberg asked Meyer.

"Yes," Meyer responded.

Meyer began testifying on Tuesday. He was one of several witnesses called as prosecutors sought to prove Brown's involvement in the alleged extortion of $350,000 from Meyer and his fellow investors.

Meyer and two other prosecution witnesses testified that Brown boasted of his relationship with Edwards, that Brown took the casino investors to meet with Edwards before and after Edwards took office in 1992, and that Edwards expressed strong support for Brown.

In one meeting, Edwards put his arm around Brown's shoulders and said "in that respect, this man speaks for me" when a potential casino investor asked him about their gambling license application in 1992, said Allen Morse, an Alton, Ill., businessman who was working with Meyer to get the license.

Before the meeting, Morse, Meyer and two other investors had been pulled over by police for speeding. When they explained to the police officer that they were headed to the Governor's Mansion for a meeting, the officer went back to his car, made a radio call and then sent the men off with just a warning.

"I was thrilled I didn't get a ticket, and it told me there was quite a bit of influence with state police," Morse testified.

Vincent Fontenot, a Eunice park ranger who sings in a Cajun band, said Brown guaranteed the investors he could get them a license.

However, neither Fontenot nor Morse said Edwards promised them anything, a point hammered home by the former governor's attorney, Daniel Small.

"He didn't say 'I support your riverboat gaming application,' did he, sir?" Small asked Fontenot during cross examination. Fontenot agreed that Edwards did not.

And Brown's lawyer, Rebecca Hudsmith, trying to establish her client as a legitimate consultant and not an extortionist, noted a 1992 pact signed by Brown and Morse.

It stated that Brown had been hired as a consultant for $150,000, of which half was to be paid immediately and the rest after a license had been secured. The statement also said that there was no absolute guarantee that a license would be awarded for a riverboat casino in Lake Charles or anywhere else.

Nevertheless, Morse said in his testimony that he grew to believe the payments the investors were making to Brown might be illegal because they eventually began paying retainer fees of $4,500 and paid more than what Brown had originally said he needed.

Morse also said he believed at least some of the money might be going to Edwards. He described a meeting in Illinois in which Brown said he had to return to Louisiana with money or the casino deal would be "squashed."

Brown didn't say what the money was for, Morse testified. "He just said it had to go to the man." Edwin Edwards was "the man," in Morse's opinion.

Brown had told Meyer during their first meeting in 1991 that if Brown was going to help the men obtain the license, he expected to receive an interest in the casino, which he would share with Edwards, Meyer testified.

Meyer explained to Brown that it would be illegal for Edwards to be involved with the casino but said Brown was free to do what he wanted with the money he made off his interest in the casino.

Meyer said he never knew for certain whether Brown was paying Edwards, but if Brown had been paying the former governor, Meyer's payments to Brown would have been illegal.

"They could be (illegal) even if the governor wasn't being paid," Meyer testified.

Morse also admitted that he made false statements to the FBI in 1998 regarding Brown's involvement in the deal, but was never prosecuted.

When the agent called, Morse, who said he was uncertain if it was a legitimate call, told the agent that Brown had worked as a consultant for the group and had guided the investors through the rules and regulations of the riverboat casino application.

After discussing the telephone call with Meyer the next day, Morse called Greenberg and told him about Brown's real involvement with the case, Morse said.

"You lied to the FBI, is that correct?" Small asked.

"I didn't know who was on the telephone," Morse answered.

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