Opinion ID: 3049934
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the wilson trial (05-545)

Text: In the Wilson trial, held from June 1 to 13, 2006, defendants Wilson and PUGH were charged with conspiring to commit bribery (Count 75). Defendant Wilson was charged with accepting from PUGH a $4,500 bribe in the form of a scholarship for his son to attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham (“UAB”) (Count 76). The defense argued that the scholarship was not intended as a bribe. The government called 9 witnesses, including Chandler, Grady Pugh, and Roland Pugh’s secretary Janice Kuykendall. The defense called 3 witnesses.
Defendant Wilson was the Chief Civil Engineer for the JCESD and served on the PRC. As Chief Civil Engineer, Wilson was in charge of all sewer line work. Wilson was also the project engineer on several construction contracts, including some of PUGH’s. As project engineer, defendant Wilson approved all sewer contractor pay requests, which were submitted monthly, before sending them on to Chandler, the JCESD’s Assistant Director. Project engineers also approved requests for extensions of time to complete contracts. Contractors were subject to a penalty of $1,000 per day if they failed to complete a contract on time. On July 26, 1999, PUGH submitted to USI — the outside consulting 40 engineer for the “Village East 3” contract — a request for a 175-day extension to complete work on the project. The completion date was May 11, 1999. On July 27, 1999, USI forwarded the request to defendant Wilson. When PUGH requested the 175-day extension on July 26, it was already 76 days overdue. PUGH was at risk for a $76,000 penalty — $1,000 in liquidated damages for each of the 76 days. On August 20, 1999, defendant Wilson faxed Grady Pugh a letter instructing him to send $4,500 to UAB for Wilson’s son. On August 23, defendant Wilson approved the extension. This saved PUGH not only the $76,000 penalty for the delay from May 11 to July 26 but also $1,000 per day for each day until PUGH completed the job. On August 24, 1999, PUGH sent a $4,500 check to UAB for Wilson’s son. In addition, defendant Wilson served on the PRC, which set technical standards for construction firms who bid on contracts for the County’s sewer project. Some of the projects called for “cured-in-place” (“CIP”) or “trenchless” techniques for replacing existing sewer lines. In the late 1990s, this was a relatively new technology, and only a handful of contractors had the expertise to do it properly. Like other municipalities, Jefferson County required contractors to meet specified minimum requirements for prior experience before they were permitted to bid on CIP work. 41 In September 1999, the PRC significantly tightened these requirements, making it more difficult for new contractors to pre-qualify. However, the three contractors who were already doing CIP work in Jefferson County were grandfathered in and did not have to go through the pre-qualification process. Two of those three CIP contractors were joint venture partners with RAST and PUGH. Although the three contractors did compete against each other in a sealed bidding process, Jefferson County’s qualification requirements cut down the number of competitors and enabled these CIP contractors to charge Jefferson County higher prices than they could charge other municipalities for similar work. When two non-local competitors finally qualified to join the bidding in 2001, prices quickly dropped from over $50 per linear foot to about $28. The government also offered 404(b) evidence showing certain items of value that PUGH provided for McNair, Chandler, and Barber, and that RAST provided for Wilson,28 and the favorable decisions PUGH obtained from the JCESD. Grady Pugh offered similar testimony, and, as in the McNair trial, the defense again attempted to impeach Grady Pugh by pointing out inconsistencies in his testimony, his hatred of his father (Roland Pugh), and his efforts to obtain a favorable sentencing recommendation from the government. 28 RAST paid for Wilson to spend a week in London and a weekend in Paris with his wife. 42
Sometime in mid-1999, defendant Wilson complained to Grady Pugh over lunch about the cost of college and that he might not be able to afford to send his son Justin to UAB for the upcoming semester (fall 1999). Grady Pugh responded that PUGH “had done a lot” for “colleges and education” and suggested PUGH might “sponsor a scholarship,” but wanted to make sure “we couldn’t get in any trouble for it.” Sometime in August 1999, Wilson called Grady Pugh to accept the scholarship offer. As noted above, on August 20, 1999, defendant Wilson used a JCESD fax machine to send Grady Pugh a letter expressing his gratitude and instructing him to send a $4,500 check to UAB to credit Wilson’s son’s account. PUGH sent the check to UAB four days later. There was no evidence that the son ever sent PUGH an application for the scholarship. Grady Pugh’s secretary typed the letter and signed Grady Pugh’s name. Grady Pugh never met nor spoke with Wilson’s son before sending the $4,500 check to UAB on August 24, 1999. The accompanying letter simply asked UAB to credit the payment to Wilson’s son’s account and gave no other instructions. Although PUGH had made charitable contributions to schools and colleges, including UAB, it had never previously awarded a scholarship to an individual student. Grady Pugh thought the money would go 43 toward “books and tuition” but could not remember exactly what Wilson had said to him. Grady Pugh was unaware that FWDE had already paid Wilson’s son’s tuition and fees for the 1999-2000 school year.29 UAB applied PUGH’s scholarship money to Wilson’s son’s account in four quarterly installments of $1,125 per installment, as was its standard practice for scholarships when a donor did not instruct otherwise. UAB took about one third of the PUGH money to cover the son’s housing and other fees, and disbursed the remainder of the PUGH money directly to the son each quarter. The installments were disbursed to the son in September 1999, December 1999, March 2000, and June 2000. Wilson’s son signed a receipt each time. Grady Pugh testified that he never did anything after August 1999 to follow up on the “scholarship” and he did not know that UAB would defer full payment into the following year. The government did not present any evidence that Wilson was aware of UAB’s payment arrangements. Grady Pugh explained his intent in giving the scholarship to Wilson’s son: When you offer somebody something like that . . . you expect them to help you if they can. And when I did that for [Wilson], I felt like if he got a chance to help us, he would. Grady Pugh explained that giving things of value to County employees provided 29 The government did not allege there was anything improper about the FWDE scholarship. 44 PUGH with the “general benefit” of “hav[ing] preferential treatment and, you know, if we had problems it would help resolve the problems. Numerous ways that things could be made easier.”
The jury convicted defendants Wilson and PUGH on Count 75 and defendant Wilson on Count 76. Wilson has not appealed. PUGH appeals as to Count 75.30