Speaker Jim Black is telling one story about the creation of the education lotto; U.S. Attorney Dennis Duffy a different one. The N&O reports from the fraud trial of Black crony Kevin Geddings:
Federal prosecutor Dennis Duffy said in his opening argument that the case against Geddings goes “to the very core of a democracy.”
Duffy also revealed that House Speaker Jim Black met with Alan Middleton, then a president with Scientific Games, and Meredith Norris, Black’s political director, and decided with them to name Geddings to the lottery commission. Black subsequently appointed Geddings to the commission.
Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, has said he did not know about Geddings’ ties to the company, and pointed out that he picked Geddings only after Charlotte lawyer Bob Cordle told him he could not serve.
Now, who do you believe?
