Ex-Louisiana Governor Edwards Is Convicted

BATON ROUGE, La. —  Former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, who was known for nod-and-a-wink politics but always escaped prosecutors, was convicted for the first time Tuesday, on charges he extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from those who applied for riverboat casino licenses.

The former four-term Democratic governor was found guilty along with his son Stephen of fraud and racketeering. The scheme took place during Edwards’ final term and after he left office in 1996, when he still wielded considerable influence in Louisiana politics.

Edwards was convicted of 17 of the 26 counts against him, including two racketeering charges that each carry 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The silver-haired, 72-year-old ladies’ man and high-rolling gambler maintained his usual confident air during the trial and appeared calm as the verdicts were read. His 35-year-old wife, Candy, cried, and he hugged her.

“I regret that it ended this way, but that is the system,” he said outside court. “I have lived 72 years in the system, and I will live the rest of my life in the system.”

The Chinese have a saying, Edwards said: “ ‘If you sit by a river long enough, the dead bodies of your enemies will float by you.’ I suppose the Feds sat by the river long enough and here comes my body.”

Prosecutors did not comment on the verdict but left the courthouse smiling. “Look at my face,” U.S. Atty. Eddie Jordan said.

By his own proud count, Edwards has been the subject of almost two dozen state or federal investigations going back to his days as a congressman in the ‘60s. In the 1980s he was charged with racketeering involving health care investments. His 1985 federal trial ended in a hung jury; he was acquitted in a retrial a year later.

Edwards served two terms as governor in the 1970s but left office because of a state ban on three consecutive terms. He was elected again in 1983 and in 1991, after defeating former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke in a runoff.

Prosecutors said Edwards, his son, a state senator and four other men engaged in an elaborate bribery and extortion scheme involving casino licenses. Two of the defendants were acquitted.

The trial featured tales of huge sums of cash changing hands, secretly recorded conversations and the public betrayal of Edwards by men with whom he once socialized and gambled. The defense claimed, among other things, that the money constituted legitimate consulting payments.

The government’s star witness was former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., who testified that Edwards demanded and got $400,000 in cash for help in getting DeBartolo a casino license in 1997. DeBartolo said Edwards picked up stacks of $100 bills near the San Francisco airport and hid the cash in a wide money belt under his shirt.

The DeBartolo extortion charge was included in the counts on which Edwards was convicted.

The deliberations began April 24. One of the 12 jurors was dismissed last week for failing to follow the rules. The judge said the juror had brought a dictionary and a thesaurus and highlighted the word “extortion.”

A defense attorney also said Tuesday that he would ask for a mistrial because the jury saw transcripts of secretly recorded conversations that contained underlined phrases.

Edwards has other legal troubles. He faces a June trial on federal charges that he helped rig a generous deal in 1996 for the head of a failed insurance company that had been liquidated by the state.

He also faces charges of trying to illegally record the conversations of FBI agents who were investigating him in 1997. No trial date has been set in that case.

In this case, prosecutors characterized Stephen Edwards, 45, as a manager of the extortion scheme, while three others allegedly acted as front men: Andrew Martin, a former aide to Edwards; Cecil Brown, a cattleman and longtime friend; and Bobby Johnson, a contractor and longtime friend.

Brown and Martin were convicted on all counts. Johnson was found guilty on nine counts. Stephen Edwards was convicted on 18 of 23 counts.