Witness: Stephen took money but got no results for casino hopefuls

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 Wednesday.

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.

The testimony came as prosecutors continued pressing their case against Edwin and Stephen Edwards, Eunice cattleman Cecil Brown and four others. They are charged in 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, whose testimony began Tuesday, is one of the key witnesses in the second of the schemes being outlined by prosecutors. In that scheme, prosecutors claim, the Edwardses and Brown extorted $350,000 from a group of St. Louis-area investors seeking to get a license for a Lake Charles area riverboat.

Meyer on Wednesday reiterated his claim that Brown not only boasted of his close friendship with the governor but also guaranteed Meyer and his fellow investors he could get them a riverboat license.

He would not be swayed by cross examination questions from Brown lawyer Rebecca Hudsmith.

Meyer agreed with Hudsmith that Brown performed many of the functions that any legitimate consultant would do. Those included entertaining investors, encouraging them to meet with lawmakers and setting up a deal with a gambling machine company for the riverboat to get video poker machines at low cost.

But then, Hudsmith asked if Brown had guaranteed them a license with the stipulation that they had to have a good application.

"We were led to believe we could put together a proposal that was a piece of crap as long as we met the minimum requirement and we would get a license," Meyer replied.

Earlier Wednesday, 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 them a copy of a pending bill requiring Calcasieu Parish voters to decide whether casinos should be allowed.

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

Stephen Edwards said he would lobby against the bill, and investor Eugene Redmond 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.

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