Meanwhile, in Raleigh the N&O reports that another Jim Black crony is in legal trouble. The details:
A Wake County jury has indicted an optometrist on four counts of perjury in connection with filing false campaign finance reports.
The optometrist, Michael Scott Edwards of Murfreesboro, is closely connected to House Speaker Jim Black, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County. Testimony earlier this year before the State Board of Elections showed that Edwards was a chief fund-raiser for the political action committee for the State Optometric Society. That organization raised money for Black, including money to support former state Rep. Michael Decker after Decker switched parties in 2003 to help Black stay in political power.
Then we have developments in the Geddings trial:
A former office manager for Kevin L. Geddings broke down in tears this afternoon when she was asked to read for jurors an e-mail that Geddings sent her last year directing her not to disclose that lottery vendor Scientific Games was a client of Geddings’ public relations firm.
“Pls never acknowledge by phone that sci games is a client … ” read the e-mail, dated Sept. 26, 2005, that was shown on a screen to jurors in the federal trial against Geddings. The e-mail was sent four days after Geddings was named by House Speaker Jim Black to the state lottery commission.
Federal prosecutors asked Cheri Moore Pfisterer of Charlotte to read the e-mail to jurors and authenticate that it had been sent to her in Geddings’ Charlotte office.
When it flashed on the screen, Pfisterer paused to compose herself, but then started crying.
Ah yes, Geddings just happened to forget to list his work for Scientific Games on his state ethics disclosure forms. A mere oversight. Makes perfect sense.
Then we have testimony from a Black staffer that former top Black staffer and political fixer Meredith Norris, in her role as lobbyist for Scientific Games, made suggestions on how the lotto bill should be written. One included a lotto commission made up of three appointees each from the governor, the speaker, and head of the state Senate.
One of Black’s appointees then turned out to be fellow Scientific Games lobbyist Kevin Geddings.
Like we’ve said all along, the Down East kleptocracy Jim Black served put the fix in for the lotto and expected no one to care because some money was going to go “for the children.” The public was expected to forgive and ignore everything else.
Let’s just see what multiple juries forgive and ignore.
