Jury still deliberating fate of former senator

The jurors must decide if former Sen. John Ford took illegal payoffs in stacks of $100 bills from an undercover FBI agent or if he thought he was being paid as a business consultant for a computer recycling company called E-Cycle Management.

Whether Ford got the money is not in doubt.

Prosecutors played video clips for the jury of eight separate meetings between Ford and undercover agent L.C. McNiel at which stacks of cash changed hands.

Jurors also listened to dozens of undercover audio recordings on which Ford and McNiel talked about E-Cycle’s desire to change state law for a business advantage.

Ford, 64, is charged with extortion, bribery and threatening federal witnesses, offenses that carry a statutory maximum punishment of 60 years in prison and fines of more than $1 million.

The trial started April 9, with the audio and video recordings at the heart of the prosecution.

Jurors saw the payment videos twice, during witness testimony and the prosecution’s closing arguments. And after beginning deliberations, jurors asked for a laptop computer and transcripts.