Arkansas Online

Ex-senator’s trial resumes

Lobbyists testify about donations in Baker bribery case.

DALE ELLIS

After some discussion and denial of two defense motions — one for a mistrial and the other for dismissal of the jury and the trial to continue as a bench trial — the bribery trial of former state senator and Republican Party operative Gilbert Baker resumed in federal court Tuesday after all participants were tested for covid-19 over the weekend.

Baker is accused of bribing former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Mike Maggio to reduce a $5.2 million jury award against Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in 2013 in a lawsuit filed by the family of Martha Bull. Bull died two weeks after being admitted for a one-month rehabilitation stint at the center, which is owned by Michael Morton of Fort Smith. Maggio pleaded guilty to bribery in 2015 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Jurors heard from two lobbyists associated with Baker regarding straw donation payments that they made from funds supplied by

Baker. Also Tuesday, Tom Courtway, former president of the University of Central Arkansas, testified outside of the jury’s hearing regarding Baker’s hiring and subsequent termination from UCA over his lobbying activities for tort reform.

The trial was recessed Friday to allow Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ray White time to get up to speed after replacing his colleague in the U.S. attorney’s office, Patrick Harris, who fell ill Wednesday night and later tested positive for covid-19. Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ordered the trial delayed for an additional day after the news of Harris’ positive test.

Defense attorneys Blake Hendrix and Annie Depper argued that the trial disruptions and the evolving nature of the covid-19 pandemic were creating distractions that they worried would jeopardize the jury’s ability to sort through the complex nature of the evidence.

A similar motion filed last year by Baker’s attorneys asking for a bench trial on the basis that “complex issues of state campaign finance and judicial election laws and regulations should be decided by a judge, not a jury,” was similarly denied. Prosecutors filed a motion in opposition stating that the Federal Rules of Evidence and Criminal Procedure and “the inherent power of the court” would ensure a fair trial for Baker.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters said the government’s opposition stated in the Feb, 26, 2020, response still stood.

“We understand that

covid is distracting,” Peters said. “We feel it as much as anyone at our table, but we would really like to proceed and finish this trial if at all possible under the circumstances.”

“What about a mistrial?” asked Marshall.

“We would like to proceed and finish this trial,” Peters repeated.

“I understand the circumstances are evolving, but I don’t think the virus means we cannot continue with the trial,” Marshall said as he announced his rulings on the two motions.

Marshall polled the jury by secret ballot to ask members if they were willing to continue serving and if all would be able to focus on the evidence over the remainder of the trial despite the distraction of the virus. Jurors unanimously voted in favor of continuing the trial.

Marshall also announced an inadvertent contact between a juror and a trial participant that happened when a paralegal for the U.S. attorney’s office sought a covid-19 test. During the intake interview conducted by phone, the nurse performing the intake exam — who is a juror on the trial — realized who she was talking to, terminated the interview and left the facility for lunch to lessen any chance of meeting the paralegal face-to-face. Both subsequently reported the contact to Marshall.

“That’s the kind of faithful service the court needs,” Marshall commented as he related the event to the jury. “It’s a small state, as ya’ll know. Each of us is only two or three steps removed from others.”

In testimony Tuesday, two lobbyists who worked with Baker, Marvin Parks and Bruce Hawkins, testified that each received money from Baker — $8,500 for Parks and $8,000 for Hawkins — ostensibly as bonus payments, but that each donated $6,000 from those payments in $2,000 contributions to Maggio’s campaign in checks signed on behalf of themselves, their wives and their business accounts. Parks said such donations, known as “straw donations,” were common in Arkansas political races.

“This is not a single event,” Parks testified.

Parks was treasurer in 2013 of Arkansans for Lawsuit Reform, which Morton helped finance through Baker. The nonprofit organization provided the payments to Parks, Hawkins and to Chris Stewart, the Little Rock attorney who set up eight political action committees for Baker. Stewart testified against Baker last week.

Parks, a former state representative from Faulkner County from 1999 until 2004, testified that Arkansans for Lawsuit Reform was formed to advocate for tort reform in the state Legislature, and said although Baker had no official position in the organization, he was the one who called the shots as to who the organization would fund.

Baker “functioned a lot like an executive director,” Parks testified, saying that in 2013, the organization began paying LRM Consulting, Baker’s consulting company, $10,000 a month for its services, with payments continuing until mid-2014 “when the story broke.”

Parks said, however, the nature of how PACs are funded made it impossible to say with any precision whose donations would go to which candidate.

But, regarding the straw contributions of $6,000 that went to Maggio, Parks said, “it was not one of my better decisions.”

Hawkins, who served in the House as a Democrat from 1983-95, said he met Baker, who served in the Senate from 2001-13. He said Baker worked for his consulting group, DBH after Baker term-limited out of the Senate. He said Baker left DBH in mid-2014.

“Mr. Baker was tremendously influential,” Hawkins said. “He had connections that I didn’t have.”

Asked about the $8,000 payment from Arkansans for Lawsuit Reform made out to DBH Consulting, Hawkins said he made some assumptions about the payment but said he and Baker never discussed the matter. His assumption, he said, was “to assist me, or DBH, in making contributions to Judge Maggio.”

“You were already being paid $3,500 a month for consulting,” Peters said, “so this was not part of your regular consulting work, was it?”

“It was unexpected,” Hawkins replied.

Under cross-examination by Hendrix, Hawkins said Baker’s addition to his consulting firm resulted in adding several high-powered entities in lucrative contracts to his firm.

“That expands your client base exponentially, is that right?” Hendrix asked. “Big, good clients, who created revenue for your firm?” “Yes, sir,” Hawkins replied. Hawkins said he formed a second PAC, DBH2 PAC, then an additional seven PACs, as a way of allowing clients to contribute more than the $5,000 annual limit per PAC. But, he testified, when the news broke regarding the PACs, he was angry and reached out to Stewart for answers as to why his name had been drawn into the news.

“I was not happy,” he said. “It was direct. I had a list of questions.”

One of those questions was who had authorized a contribution to Maggio from Hawkins’ DBH2 PAC. The answer, he said after reviewing his deposition to the FBI, was Stewart.

After Stewart had to file a number of amendments to financial reports related to DBH2 PAC, Hawkins said, he removed Stewart as an officer of the PAC and transferred the responsibility to another attorney.

After testifying outside of the jury’s presence Tuesday, Courtway is scheduled to testify in front of the jury first thing this morning. Baker’s attorneys had argued that Courtway’s testimony would prejudice the jury against their client while adding nothing relevant to the crimes Baker is charged with.

Marshall ruled that Courtway’s testimony would be admissible but said it should be condensed to a format more in keeping with a question-and-answer session rather than the narrative that Courtway presented to the court Tuesday afternoon.

Courtway testified Tuesday that after Baker had told him he was not lobbying for tort reform while being paid by UCA to lobby for its interests, evidence that Baker had lied later surfaced prompting him to demand the former senator’s resignation from his $132,000 a year position as assistant to the president of UCA.

Front Page

en-us

2021-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282059100048015

WEHCO Media