Final attorney arguments in Nagin trial
NEW ORLEANS - Federal prosecutors on Monday summed up their case for convicting former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin of corruption during his two terms as mayor - a period that included the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"You saw how a mayor on the take operates," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Pickens told jurors in closing arguments, recapping testimony and evidence presented over seven days of testimony that ended Friday.
Behind him on a large white screen flashed pictures of emails, city documents, pages from Nagin's appointment calendar and newspaper articles - all used to back up testimony from more than two dozen prosecution witnesses, including five who said they were involved in bribing Nagin.
A 21-count indictment alleges Nagin sought and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of bribes from people doing business with the city. The bribes were allegedly in the form of money, free travel that included vacations in Hawaii and Jamaica and free slabs of granite for a foundering business, Stone Age LLC that Nagin and his sons own.
Jury deliberations were expected to begin as early as Monday afternoon, after the defense's final argument, which was set for late in the morning.
Nagin, a Democrat who served from 2002-2010, testified last week that key witnesses lied and prosecutors misinterpreted the documentary evidence He insisted that he bribed no one.
Throughout the trial, the defense repeatedly made the case that prosecutors overstated Nagin's authority to approve contracts. His lawyer attacked the credibility of key witnesses who testified after plea deals with prosecutors. There is no proof, he said, that money and material given to the granite business owned by Nagin and his sons was tied to city business.
The charges against Nagin include one overarching conspiracy count along with six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of filing false tax returns.
The charges resulted from a City Hall corruption investigation that had resulted in several convictions or guilty pleas by former Nagin associates by the time trial started, with jury selection, on Jan. 27.
Businessmen Frank Fradella and Rodney Williams, both awaiting sentencing for their roles in separate bribery schemes alleged in the case, each testified that they bribed Nagin.
Nagin's former technology chief, Greg Meffert, who also is awaiting sentencing after a plea deal, told jurors he helped another businessman, Mark St. Pierre, bribe Nagin with lavish vacation trips. St. Pierre did not testify. He was convicted in the case in 2011.
Nagin said he did not to know his vacation trips to Jamaica and Hawaii were paid for by St. Pierre. He also said he wasn't told that a family trip to New York was paid for by a movie theater owner who, prosecutors said, received help with a city tax issue after Katrina wiped out the theater.