Give the jurors in Montgomery, Alabama, credit for endurance.
This wasn’t an FBI sting or about cash in the freezer. Instead,
there were piles of documents to support 65 total indictments for
bribery, conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and obstruction of justice
against four defendants.
They braved 32 days of testimony and 11 days of deliberation
before convicting former Alabama Democratic governor Don Siegelman
June 29 on seven of 32 counts of bribery, conspiracy, and
obstruction of justice for taking $500,000 in campaign donations
from former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in return for
appointing him to Alabama’s Certificate of Need board.
The board makes decisions about hospital expansion and equipment
needs. Unsurprisingly, when Scrushy was on the board, decisions
often favored expansion and more expensive equipment at HealthSouth
hospitals. Jurors also convicted Scrushy on all seven counts in his
indictment for making the contribution to win the appointment and
then hiding it. The current Mrs. Scrushy, his third wife, expressed
disbelief that Scrushy was convicted in this case.
Siegleman’s conviction would seem to be the end of his political
career. Some, however, already thought his career was over when his
comeback attempt was crushed in the June Democrat primary by
Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley. Baxley won 59.8 percent of the
vote to 36.4 percent for Siegelman. Four lesser candidates were
also in the race.
Ironically, the verdict against Scrushy came one year and one
day after he was acquitted on 36 counts that alleged he
intentionally inflated HealthSouth revenue to prop up sagging stock
earnings and sold his shares based on inside information that
HealthSouth would be investigated for Medicaid fraud. When the
Medicaid investigation became public knowledge, HealthSouth share
prices plummeted. HealthSouth employees lost most of the value of
their 401(k) accounts. Other small investors lost thousands of
dollars.
A former Siegelman chief of staff and a former state highway
director were acquitted on all charges. They had been charged with
steering state projects to Siegelman donors and friends. The paper
trail was less damning than the connection between Siegelman and
Scrushy. It also did not hurt the former state highway director
that his attorney was former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley,
lieutenant governor Lucy Baxley’s former second husband.
The U.S. Attorney for Alabama’s Southern District is Laura
Canary, wife of Bill Canary who is chief of staff to current
Republican governor Bob Riley. Laura Canary recused herself to
avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest, turning
prosecution over to her deputy.
It is no wonder many Alabamians consider state government to be
corrupt. When surveyed by the Center for Governmental Services at
Auburn University, 83 percent said assuring the honesty and
integrity of state officials was a high priority.
What about the 17 percent who thought it was not important?
Where they real or hopeful beneficiaries of corruption?
