An FBI surveillance photo taken Nov. 27, 2011, in the parking lot of a West Memphis restaurant shows Steven B. Jones, then the director of the state Department of Human Services, taking $1,000 cash from a man handing it through the open window of Jones' parked black Lexus.
The photo was shown to jurors Thursday in a Little Rock federal courtroom where Ted Suhl, a wealthy northeast Arkansas businessman, is on trial on accusations of using a middleman to pay the bribe and at least 12 others to Jones between 2007 and 2011. In exchange, prosecutors say, Jones took, or looked into taking, several official actions to benefit Suhl's mental health businesses, which the department oversaw.
FBI agent Phillip Spainhour testified that agents set up surveillance outside the Cracker Barrel restaurant after confronting Phillip Carter, the man seen handing the money to Suhl, about a month earlier over several telephone conversations intercepted by a federal wiretap that incriminated him, Jones and Suhl. The agent said Carter was originally being investigated in another matter, and agreed to cooperate in both investigations.
Carter began testifying late Thursday afternoon and is scheduled to resume his testimony at 9 a.m. today. Sitting in front of jurors in an orange jail jumpsuit, he said he is serving time in a federal prison camp in Texarkana after pleading guilty in the bribery case in 2014. But the details of a separate case, in which Carter was convicted of election fraud, haven't been disclosed to jurors in the bribery case.
Carter, then a Crittenden County juvenile probation officer and former West Memphis city councilman, pleaded guilty in September 2012, along with three other men including then-state Rep. Hudson Hallum, in the election fraud case. The four men agreed that they distributed cheap whiskey and chicken dinners in a conspiracy to bribe voters in 2011 to elect Hallum to the District 54 House seat. Hallum resigned his legislative seat as a result of the charges and was in substance abuse treatment for several months afterward.
Jones, who is serving prison time after pleading guilty to charges of accepting bribe money from Suhl in return for official actions, is also expected to testify.
Throughout the day Thursday, federal prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington had Spainhour explain the significance of canceled checks, bank statements and telephone records that they say illustrate a pattern of activity that surrounded each of the 13 bribery payments.
Suhl, 51, who years ago took over his father's in-patient counseling center for youths in Warm Springs, near Pocahontas, is facing six charges: conspiracy to commit bribery and honest-services fraud, three counts of honest services fraud, one count of federal funds bribery and one count of interstate travel in aid of bribery.
His attorneys say the bribery allegations are just another lie from Carter to try to bring down a "big fish" for the FBI in return for a sentence reduction. They call Carter a "hustler."
Spainhour testified that Carter became known by the code word "big fish" after he indicated he liked the moniker when agents told him that they were after Suhl, whom they considered the big fish.
Over and over again Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda R. Vaughn of the Justice Department's public integrity section in Washington showed jurors checks, generally between $2,000 and $3,000 each, that Suhl wrote through a Florida company he owns, Millenia Health Care, to the 15th Street Church of God in Christ in West Memphis.
The checks were each deposited into the church account, and then the church pastor, John Bennett, now deceased, would write checks equaling about half the amount of the Suhl checks on a church nursery account. Prosecutors say Bennett wrote the second checks for cash, which he then gave to Carter, who in turn gave part of the money to Jones.
Spainhour testified that before each series of events, which happened usually every month, but sometimes skipped a few months, there would be a "flurry" of telephone calls, all intercepted on federal wiretaps. He said the flurry of calls began with Suhl, who called Carter to tell him about something he wanted Jones to do for him. Carter would then call Jones, who would agree to take the action requested or look into it. The three men would then then meet at an out-of-the way restaurant where Suhl would use his credit card to buy dinners for all the men, generally costing him between $150 and $200, Spainhour said. He said Suhl would then give a check made out to the church to Carter, a church elder.
He said Carter would later meet up with Jones to give him cash from the check after Bennett deposited the check and got cash.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. today before U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson.
Metro on 07/15/2016