Lawmakers awaiting day in court may rethink strategy
State lawmakers awaiting trial in the Tennessee Waltz bribery scandal began reviewing their defense tactics Friday ? while hoping to learn from a former colleague’s failures.
Former Sen. Roscoe Dixon, the first of five indicted lawmakers to go to trial, relied heavily on an entrapment defense. Government agents, the Memphis Democrat argued, coerced him into taking bribes he would have rejected except for their trickery.
It didn’t work, and Dixon’s federal court jury found him guilty Thursday on all charges in a five-count extortion and bribery indictment. He is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 8 and a prison term is likely.
“Entrapment is a very difficult and dangerous defense, and I’m sure people will be wary of employing a similar type of defense because there’s been a litmus test now,” said defense lawyer Steve Farese, who represents a Shelby County official charged in the Tennessee Waltz investigation.
Farese said he did not see the conviction as a “great deterrent” to keep other Tennessee Waltz defendants from going to trial. “But it will be reason to pause and think,” he said.
Defendants faced with criminal charges often avoid trial by pleading guilty, generally in exchange for a better chance at reduced punishment.
Still awaiting trial on Tennessee Waltz charges are Sen. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis; Sen. Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga, and former Sen. John Ford, D-Memphis.
William Massey, Bowers’ lawyer, said he would take another look at his defense plans after studying transcripts of government witnesses’ testimony against Dixon. Massey, who also said he does not favor an entrapment defense, said he still expected Bowers to go to trial.
“She’s indicated a strong willingness to put this matter in front of a jury,” he said.
Ford’s lawyer, Michael Scholl, said Dixon’s conviction would have little effect on his client’s plans.
?The factual situation with Mr. Dixon is completely different than what occurred with my client,” Scholl said.
Crutchfield’s lawyer, Bill Farmer of Nashville, would say only that “every case is different.”
Tennessee Waltz focused on a fake company, E-Cycle Management, that was created by the FBI to look for corrupt officials. The company offered bribes supposedly for help in buying and reselling used government computers.
The investigation led to 10 indictments, including charges against three county officials in Memphis and Chattanooga and two payoff “bagmen” who have pleaded guilty to delivering bribes to state lawmakers.
One lawmaker, former Rep. Chris Newton, has pleaded guilty and is serving a one-year prison sentence, while a former Hamilton County commissioner convicted at trial on similar charges drew a three-year sentence.
Accused lawbreakers who plead guilty ? sparing the government the expense of trials ? often draw punishment on the lighter end of sentencing scales.
“The sad thing about the process is people get punished for going to trial,” Farese said. “And the danger of that is that if you are truly innocent then you get treated worse than those who are truly guilty.”
Dixon, a black Memphis Democrat, sought to stir public support with accusations that Tennessee Waltz was a government plot to undermine black political power in Memphis and hurt Democrats.
Those efforts had no obvious effect on his trial.