FBI agent testifies on Grace interview
Former St. Gabriel Mayor George L. Grace Sr. denied receiving $7,500 in cash from a Baton Rouge businessman before adding that his memory was uncertain on that point, an FBI agent testified Wednesday in Grace’s racketeering trial.
FBI Special Agent Bret Skiles testified that Grace also could not remember in October 2007 whether Blaine Efferson of Crawler Supply Co. LLC had contributed to any of his re-election campaigns.
Skiles said he interviewed Grace after a person complained about Grace’s activities.
Earlier in the week, Efferson testified that he made cash payments totaling $7,500 to Grace at the mayor’s request. Efferson said he paid that money because he feared refusal to pay would mean Grace would block the city’s purchase of heavy equipment and services from Crawler Supply.
Efferson also testified Crawler Supply wrote checks totaling $1,750 for Grace’s re-election campaigns between 1999 and 2004.
During questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Patricia Jones, Skiles also said he initiated an investigation of George Grace in 2006 when a person complained that FEMA trailers were parked on Grace’s property in St. Gabriel and that city work crews had prepared the site for those trailers.
Skiles said Grace told him the trailers were for Katrina victims and that a Houston businessman, Luis Gonzales, rented the site from him for $2,900 per month.
Grace confirmed city work crews ran water and other utility lines to the site, but added that Gonzales paid the city more than $40,000 for those improvements, Skiles testified.
Gonzales testified earlier this week that he refused demands from Grace for campaign contributions and an ownership interest in two other planned projects in St. Gabriel. After those refusals, Gonzales testified, Grace evicted him from the FEMA trailer site — an action that cost Gonzales’ firm more than $200,000 in annual fees from FEMA.
FEMA attorney George Cotton testified this week that Grace then was awarded the FEMA contract through a firm that Grace owned.
Skiles testified Wednesday that Grace told him he evicted Gonzales because the Houston man owed him $6,000 in delinquent lease payments for the trailer site.
Grace also confirmed “he took over the FEMA contract,” Skiles said.
Defense attorney Robert M. Marionneaux Jr. asked Skiles whether Efferson initially denied that he paid bribes to Grace.
“Correct,” Skiles said.
Marionneaux asked whether Skiles promised Efferson he would not be prosecuted if he cooperated with the FBI.
“That’s correct,” Skiles replied.
“He (Efferson) told me about four occasions on which he gave Mr. Grace cash that he asked for,” Skiles said. The agent added that Efferson said he feared the loss of St. Gabriel’s equipment purchases if he refused to make those payments.
Marionneaux asked whether Grace ever asked Efferson for a bribe.
“He (Efferson) said they never used the words bribes or kickbacks, but there was an implied scheme,” Skiles replied.
Marionneaux noted that Skiles and another FBI agent first interviewed Efferson at his home when family members were present. He asked whether Skiles took that action in an effort to intimidate Efferson.
Skiles denied that was the case.
Jones, the prosecutor, then asked why Skiles promised Efferson immunity from prosecution.
“Because I wanted his cooperation,” Skiles said.
“Did you speak (with Efferson) in front of other family members or in private?” Jones asked.
“In private,” Skiles said.
Jones noted that Marionneaux focused hard on the fact that Skiles had talked to other St. Gabriel vendors who said they never paid Grace anything.
“Do people who pay bribes always admit that?” Jones asked.
“No, they don’t,” Skiles said.
The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday afternoon with testimony from William Myles, a private citizen serving as an undercover operative for the FBI in return for an annual salary of $104,000.
Myles, who also has worked on other investigations in other states, helped the FBI snare Grace and six other area officials in a sting known as Operation Blighted Officials. In that sting, Myles and undercover FBI agents posed as corrupt executives of Cifer 5000, a fake firm that was supposed to sanitize residents’ garbage cans.
Bribes were offered in return for officials’ promises to help Cifer 5000 obtain municipal contracts.
Convictions have been won against former White Castle Mayor Maurice Brown, former Port Allen Mayor Derek Lewis, former New Roads Mayor Tommy Nelson, former Port Allen Police Chief Fred Smith and former Port Allen Councilman Johnny Johnson Sr.
White Castle Police Chief Mario Brown was acquitted by the same jury that convicted his brother, the mayor.
Nelson has been sentenced to a prison term of 11 years. Brown is serving a 10-year prison term. Lewis, Smith and Johnson have not been sentenced.