Corruption case defense lawyers say they’re not ready for trial

Crutchfield’s lawyer said the recent guilty plea of a co-defendant has caused unexpected work for his attorneys.

And Ford’s lawyer said he is still working his way through more than 1,000 hours of investigative tapes secretly recorded by the FBI.

Judge Daniel Breen told the lawyers to return to court Nov. 3 to discuss setting trial dates.

Crutchfield’s lawyer, William Farmer, took part by speaker phone in a “status conference” with Breen, while Ford and his lawyer, Michael Scholl, were in the courtroom.

After the brief hearing, Scholl said he has had to hire additional help to prepare transcripts of the FBI’s audio and video tapes, which include phone-tap recordings.

Scholl declined to say what phones were tapped or if federal agents listened to Ford’s calls from his Senate office in Nashville.

Ford, a Memphis Democrat, resigned from the Senate after his arrest in May. He had been in the Senate for three decades and said he resigned because of new legislature ethics laws and not because of the criminal charges.

Ford and Crutchfield, a Chattanooga Democrat, are charged along with three other current or former lawmakers with taking bribes from FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking favorable legislation from the General Assembly.

Crutchfield was indicted along with Charles Love, a Chattanooga lobbyist, who pleaded guilty Aug. 16 to being a bag man passing along bribes from the FBI.

Prosecutors say federal agents made more than 2,000 hours of audio and video tapes during the two-year investigation code-named Tennessee Waltz.

Scholl said more than 1,000 hours of those tapes involve Ford.

“Before we go to trial, we’ll have all that stuff transcribed, and in order to do that, we’ll have multiple people listen to the tapes and go back over them multiple times,” Scholl said.

Also charged are Sen. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis; former Sen. Roscoe Dixon, a Memphis Democrat, and Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland.

The accused face extortion and bribery charges. Ford also is charged with threatening a federal witness.

Barry Myers, a Dixon associate, pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to passing along FBI payoffs. He and Love are scheduled for sentencing in February.

A defense lawyer said at a court hearing Tuesday that Dixon is undecided if he will go to trial. He refused to say if Dixon is talking with prosecutors about a possible guilty plea.

Scholl said guilty pleas make no difference to Ford.

“Everybody can plead guilty in this case except for us and it won’t be a concern for us,” Scholl said. “We’re going to go to trial.”