Ted Suhl took the witness stand Tuesday in his own defense, repeatedly telling a federal jury that he "absolutely did not" pay bribes to a former state official, Steven B. Jones, nor take any other illegal actions to benefit his businesses, which Jones' department regulated.
In keeping with defense attorneys' contention that he was framed by a con man turned government informant, the 51-year-old from northern Randolph County, near the Missouri border, said his secretly FBI-monitored telephone conversations and visits with an informant between 2007 and 2011 were misunderstood.
He was referring to Phillip Carter, 46, a former West Memphis alderman, Crittenden County juvenile probation officer and admitted "hustler" who is serving a two-year sentence after pleading guilty in September to a bribery-conspiracy charge. Carter testified last week in Suhl's federal bribery trial that he was one of two middlemen who, from 2007 through 2011, passed money from Suhl, disguised as church donations, to Jones in exchange for the deputy director of the state Department of Human Services regularly feeding Suhl inside information.
The department regulates providers of behavioral health services for juveniles, including Suhl's two Arkansas businesses -- an inpatient facility in Warm Springs that is now called Trinity Behavioral Health Care but was known for years as The Lord's Ranch, and an outpatient services provider, Maxus, that operates in several locations statewide under the name Arkansas Counseling Associates.
Jones, 51, of Marion testified Monday that he never undertook any official actions on Suhl's behalf, but he led Suhl to believe he did so that he could keep receiving cash from Carter that Carter said was from Suhl. He pleaded guilty Oct. 1 to conspiracy and bribery charges, for which he is serving 2½ years, but said Monday that he has since had "second thoughts" about whether he was actually guilty.
Suhl, Jones and Carter were all close friends with John Bennett, pastor of the 15th Street Church of God in Christ in West Memphis who died in 2014. Bennett was never indicted, but prosecutors have acknowledged that he was the person identified in Carter's and Jones' indictment as an "unindicted co-conspirator" referred to as Person A.
As Jones did Monday, Suhl testified Tuesday that the actions prosecutors say constituted a "bribery conspiracy" were in reality simply efforts to help Bennett in his campaign for bishop. He said the portrayal of those efforts was manipulated by Carter to appear sinister so that Carter can later negotiate a sentence reduction in exchange for his "cooperation."
Suhl acknowledged writing a series of checks, usually for $2,000 or $3,000 apiece, to the church and giving them to Carter to give to Bennett. Suhl said he would have given the checks directly to Bennett but was no longer seeing Bennett on a regular basis and knew that Carter, who contacted him frequently, was Bennett's driver.
Suhl strongly denied that he intended for Bennett to retain only half of each check as a church donation and get cash for the other half to give to Jones. But Carter testified that Suhl knew the money was going to Jones and even regularly asked him if he was keeping Jones "happy."
Jones testified that Carter often gave him cash a day or two after the three men met at an area restaurant, usually the pricey Texas de Brazil across from the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, and that Carter said the cash had come from Suhl. Jones said he understood that the cash, usually about $1,000, was in exchange for him listening to Suhl air his complaints and concerns about state policies that affected his businesses, and him pretending to keep Suhl informed about internal departmental matters that might concern Suhl's businesses.
But Jones and Suhl both said they only recall meeting a handful of times -- not the 13 times that prosecutors, citing credit card records and restaurant reservations, say they met.
Suhl testified that he liked to meet with Jones because he believed the department's other deputy director, Janie Huddleston, who oversaw the division that handles Medicaid reimbursements to mental health providers, didn't like him because his companies were "faith-based." He admitted he was looking for an ally in the department, but he said it was to help deter illegal or unfair policies, to help patients, and not to give Suhl's businesses an upper hand financially.
Suhl's businesses received more than $125 million in Medicaid reimbursements through the department between 2007 and 2011, but after Jones pleaded guilty, the state cut off Medicaid funding to the businesses, greatly reducing the number of patients.
Suhl said Bennett had encouraged him to meet with Jones, who Bennett said "shares our values as a Christian."
Jones had long been a member of another Church of God in Christ that Bennett had pastored, and said he agreed to meet with Suhl to appease Bennett, whom he greatly respected.
"We had a mutual relationship with Bennett," Suhl testified, referring to himself and Jones. He added, "We wanted him to be a bishop because we felt like he was a godly, Christian man."
Suhl said the checks he wrote to the church -- only some of which he gave to Carter -- were part of his family's "mission to help other ministries," particularly those like the West Memphis church that struggled financially. Suhl called himself an evangelical Christian who grew up "immersed" in the ministry and said he came to have strong affection for Bennett, who overcame drug and alcohol addiction through the church and regularly gave sermons about it to the youths at Suhl's ranch.
Suhl indicated that he regarded Carter as a friend, perhaps mistakenly, noting that he even agreed at one point to meet with a state legislator whom Carter trumpeted, though the meeting never took place.
In 2012, Carter and three other people, including the legislator, Hudson Hallum of Marion, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe absentee voters in the Crittenden County area with chicken dinners, as well as cheap vodka and whiskey, to ensure Hallum won three special elections in 2011 for the House District 54 seat. Hallum resigned upon pleading guilty, and Carter served three years' probation.
FBI wiretaps used in that investigation led the FBI to uncover what they say was a bribery scheme involving Suhl, Jones, Carter and Bennett. They said Carter's telephone calls with the other men raised eyebrows, and when they confronted Carter about them, he admitted a bribery scheme was going on and agreed to let agents listen in on his future conversations with Jones, Suhl and Bennett.
Suhl denied allegations that he was speaking in code when he used the term "your buddy" in the phone calls with Carter to refer to Jones. His attorneys played short excerpts of numerous recorded calls in which Suhl regularly referred to Carter as "buddy" as well.
But prosecutors said Suhl was careful not to mention Jones by name in the calls, though he sometimes could be heard saying, "Hi, Phillip. How are you, buddy?"
Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson to allow them to cross-examine Suhl about "the fact that the Lord's Ranch abused children," according to allegations that were investigated -- but never proven -- years before the alleged conspiracy. Wilson refused after defense attorneys cited a lack of evidence, and a prosecutor, John Keller, conceded that "nothing formal" regarding the allegations was ever determined.
Asked by prosecutors why he didn't just call or openly visit Jones about his policy concerns, since Jones maintained an open-door policy, Suhl said, "I didn't consider him a friend. I did later, but it wasn't like we were close friends." He said he wanted Jones to look into his concerns without identifying him because "I felt we were discriminated against" as a faith-based provider and wouldn't be taken seriously.
On rebuttal, prosecutors called Huddleston, who was Jones' fellow deputy director until October 2014.
"We have a lot of faith-based providers in the state," she said, adding that all were treated the same as nonfaith-based providers. She said she regularly, actively sought input from all providers, encouraging them to contact her privately and during her public appearances, but when it came to Suhl, "I don't remember him ever asking to meet with me."
Closing arguments are to begin at 9 a.m. today, followed by jury deliberations.
A Section on 07/20/2016