…..and $50,000, of course.
Jim Black keeps offering up excuses for his behavior. Now he says the $10,000 in cash he slipped his buddy Michael Decker was actually a gift to a downtrodden legislator:
As for the state bribery charge, Black insisted he had not set out to bribe Decker. He noted that he had entered an “Alford plea,” which did not require him to admit that he was in fact guilty of a crime.
He acknowledged meeting with Decker and state Rep. Steve Woods in the IHOP in Salisbury. But he said he told Decker, “I know your vote’s not for sale, and I’m not into buying votes.”
He gave Decker $10,000 cash to help improve Decker’s living conditions, Black said. Decker “had a very, very bad reputation for living in a van that was not fit to live in,” Black said.
I don’t know if this is old news or not. This 2006 Journal story does mention that Decker was known to sleep in his red, white and blue van, but attributes his living conditions to his “frugality.”
Whatever. On the bright side, though, Decker will soon have a bed to lay his head.
