?My error was in trusting Jerry Cooper?: Land appraiser Jimmy Passons testifies against state senator
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After the panel of eight women and four men spent six hours behind closed doors without reaching a decision, U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar told them to return and resume deliberations at 9 a.m. today.
Jimmy Passons, 61, of McMinnville testified that he never intended to defraud anybody by preparing an appraisal listing a nonexistent rail spur on the property of a lumber mill owned by Cooper.
?My error was in trusting Jerry Cooper,? Passons testified.
Jurors at one point Thursday asked the judge if they could convict Passons only on the conspiracy charge and not the other two. Edgar said he informed them in a note that they could.
Passons testified that he did prepare the inflated appraisal of Cooper?s mill on 13.6 acres in Warren County.
That appraisal made it appear as if a planned railroad spur had been built, and Cooper took the appraisal to the bank in what a prosecutor described as a borrowing scheme.
The scheme described by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble included the senator seeking favors from Lt. Gov. John Wilder and a former economic development commissioner, Bill Baxter.
Passons said Cooper had assured him the 1998 appraisal would only be used to show the projected value of the property with the spur built.
?You don?t know how many times I?ve kicked myself,? Passons testified.
The prosecutor said the $1.5 million appraisal showing the rail spur helped Cooper arrange a $1.7 million loan for Huntsville, Ala., businessman Anthony C. Auyer to buy the mill.
Defense attorney Michael Galligan said in closing arguments that bank executives and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials did not rely on the appraisal to approve the lending. Galligan said the prosecution referred to possible political influence in the borrowing process, but the government decided to go after the ?little appraiser.?
Humble told jurors that Cooper asked Wilder, a member of the BankTennessee holding company board, for help getting the loan and then received help from Baxter, now a Tennessee Valley Authority board member, in arranging a $485,000 state loan that was not repaid.
Neither Cooper, Wilder nor Baxter are charged in the case. Wilder is a Democrat and Baxter a Republican.
Cooper, who as the property owner is identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal charges, refused to testify at the trial. His attorney has said prosecutors have identified him as a possible target in the ongoing investigation.
Baxter has said Cooper called him about a 1998 economic development grant for a railroad spur but never mentioned it would benefit him financially.
Passons? co-defendants ? Auyer and his bookkeeper wife Teresa R. Auyer ? pleaded guilty Monday to charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Prosecutors said the Auyers falsified invoices to get some of the money.