Trial to start for St. Gabriel ex-mayor Grace
A much-anticipated trial stemming from the FBI’s Operation Blighted Officials sting opens Monday in Baton Rouge with jury selection in the 16-month-old case of former St. Gabriel Mayor George L. Grace.
Five other area officials either pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial during the past 18 months as a result of the sting. They were netted by undercover FBI agents and an undercover operative posing as corrupt executives offering bribes for help in gaining municipal business for a fake firm, Cifer 5000.
Grace was the first official approached by the investigators posing as crooks, according to evidence presented by prosecutors in prior trials. And Grace is alleged to have pointed the posers to three other mayors who would accept cash in return for promises to steer business to Cifer, a fictional garbage can-cleaning service.
All three of those former mayors — Maurice Brown, of White Castle; Derek Lewis, of Port Allen; and Tommy Nelson, of New Roads — are now convicted felons.
Brown is serving a prison term of 10 years. Nelson was sentenced last week to a prison term of 11 years. Lewis, who was the only mayor to plead guilty, has not yet been sentenced.
Now, Grace is fighting charges of racketeering, extortion, obstruction of justice, false statements, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and use of a telephone in aid of racketeering.
Grace is accused of accepting more than $20,000 in cash and other gifts, but $7,500 of the cash was not received as a result of the Cifer 5000 sting, according to his indictment.
The FBI sting grew out of Grace’s alleged efforts to extort money from a Houston businessman and a Baton Rouge businessman, the indictment states.
The Houston man told Grace in 2005 that he wanted to establish a business in St. Gabriel, but Grace told him he needed $18,000 and a percentage of the business for Grace’s help, the indictment alleges. The man refused Grace’s demands.
In pretrial filings, prosecutors identify the Houston man as Luis Gonzales.
In those same court documents, prosecutors identify the Baton Rouge businessman as Blaine Efferson.
In Grace’s indictment, Efferson is identified only as “B.E.”
The indictment alleges that between August 2002 and August 2007 “B.E.” sold approximately $450,000 worth of goods and services to St. Gabriel. During that same five years, Grace asked for four cash payments that totaled $7,500.
“Three of the payments were made in a parking lot of the baseball stadium at Louisiana State University, and the fourth payment was made in a subdivision located off of Highway 30,” the indictment alleges.
But “B.E.” (Efferson) began working with the FBI, according to the indictment. In August 2007, he met with Grace at St. Gabriel City Hall for a conversation that was secretly recorded.
The indictment alleges “B.E.” told Grace the FBI had asked to interview him.
“Grace responded by advising B.E. to lie to the FBI, stating, ‘You don’t want to tell ’em you gave me no cash,’ ” according to the indictment.
This is the first Cifer 5000 trial that will not have a presiding Baton Rouge judge.
Because of the death in July of former Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph E. Tyson, U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr., of Shreveport, will preside.
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys have won decisions from Hicks in pretrial skirmishes.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Corey R. Amundson, M. Patricia Jones and Michael J. Jefferson persuaded Hicks not to permit defense attorneys to mention the felony conviction of a former FBI agent who worked undercover in the Cifer 5000 sting.
That former agent, Darin Lee McAllister, began serving a four-year prison term in September for his conviction in Nashville, Tenn., on charges of wire fraud and making false statements in a bankruptcy case.
But defense attorneys Lewis O. Unglesby, Barrett D. Burkart Jr., Lance C. Unglesby and Robert M. Marionneaux Jr. won permission to have McAllister transferred from prison to Baton Rouge so that he can testify as a witness for Grace.
Hicks also granted Grace permission to have Brown recalled from prison to serve as a defense witness.
Amundson successfully argued that Grace’s trial should neither be postponed nor transferred away from Baton Rouge.
Some pretrial arguments have been bitter.
Lewis Unglesby was fined $500 by Hicks on Tuesday for what the judge wrote was “insolence” during arguments over Grace’s unsuccessful request for a postponement of the trial.
“The court specifically notes Mr. Unglesby’s repeated questions … such as, ‘When do I get to talk?’ and ‘Do I get to talk or just get chewed out?’ ” Hicks wrote.
Prosecutors said after Nelson’s conviction in June that the FBI investigation is ongoing.
No new indictments, however, have been made public since then.
Last year, Port Allen Police Chief Fred Smith was convicted at trial as a result of the FBI sting. And former Port Allen City Councilman Johnny L. Johnson Sr. pleaded guilty earlier. Neither man has been sentenced.
The only other Cifer 5000 defendant was White Castle Police Chief Mario Brown, who was acquitted on all charges by the same jury that convicted his brother, the mayor.