Happy groundhog day!
I am attending the Nagin trial, in case anyone is wondering. I am just choosing to not editorialize too much on it until it's over. I skipped the jury selection but I was there for the entire trial on Friday. It was simultaneously frustrating and gratifying for me...but probably more frustrating. In fact, I found it demoralizing at times. The contributions AZ made seem to have fallen down the memory hole but I probably should have expected that.
It was gratifying in that with Meffert's testimony and Fradella's, at least it confirmed for me that AZ nailed a lot of the story.
I am trying to avoid rehashing AZ's contributions, I've done that before to little avail, but there is one curious matter I want to point out.
Back in May of 2007, I was the first one who made the connection between the HSOA subsidiary Cornerstone Marble and Granite and Nagin and his sons' company Stone Age.
American Zombie: We're getting rocked...are we getting rolled?
In the trial, Fradella claimed that 2 shipments of granite were sent to Stone Age on June 11, 2008 by Home Solutions of Louisiana from a satellite office in Florida. I was already informed of the Granite kickback scheme over a year previous to this actual transfer so I'm wondering if this was the only one or if the prosecution is just focusing only on this one. I was tipped off about the granite issue in May of 2007 at the same time I was informed about the plane ride to Chicago. This is the post I made that broke the story of the Chicago trip:
Interoperability v.2
So I'm curious how I knew about the granite transfer one year before the actual event happened...maybe I'm psychic? I think the likely answer is that my source overheard the deal being made even though the actual transfer had not yet taken place.
The other curious thing is that both the prosecution and Fradella were very careful not to name Cornerstone. They kept saying the granite came from Home Solutions of Louisiana, with no mention of Cornerstone.
I was starting to think maybe I got it wrong from the source but then the prosecution displayed exhibit 82, an email from Fradella complaining about how the granite in the first shipment to Stone Age's office in Baltimore was damaged. The subject line in that email clearly stated "Cornerstone". But the whole testimony was stating that the damaged granite, 40 slabs, was the fault of Home Solutions of Louisiana. I'm not sure why they are being so careful not to mention Cornerstone.
Here's the other thing I'm curious about. I have pretty good reason to believe that Ray Nagin was actually being paid by the Market Street developer, Michael Samuel, for his favor on the development project. Fradella admitted that Nagin asked him for 100k but he was only able to produce 50k after tapping a wealthy HSOA board member, Michael McGrath.
I'm curious why there's been no mention of any direct payments to Nagin from Samuel...I thought for sure that would come out in the trial and that Samuel would be asked to testify.
Only other thing I will point out at this time is the testimony from both Meffert and Fradella seemed extremely well rehearsed. The prosecution made a point to zing Aaron Bennett at every opportunity with both Fradella and Meffert providing the fodder. Fradella even went so far as to say he, Scott Sewell and others called Bennett's lack of tact "The Aaron Factor". Fradella kept referring to Bennett as a bull in a china shop.
At this point I have no idea what Nagin and Jenkins were thinking by taking this to trial. The defense was basically out to lunch. Jenkins would stand up and point out that all the witnesses had originally lied to avoid getting in trouble and that they have all cut deals with the DOJ....and that was pretty much the bulk of the defense.
The only thing I can think of is that they may be waiting to pull a rabbit out their hat in respect to the DOJ commenting scandal. I think, perhaps with a little help from team Heebe, Jenkins may be lying in wait to drop a bomb in the courtroom. As luck would have it, I'm hearing that bomb may be coming down the pipe this week in a another scandal with Nagin that my good friend Karen Gadbois tackled back in the day. It isn't on the agenda for the Nagin trial...but I'm betting it will be before long.
Stay tuned...
Oh yeah...you absolutely need to read this post Lamar published last night on CenLamar.
I am attending the Nagin trial, in case anyone is wondering. I am just choosing to not editorialize too much on it until it's over. I skipped the jury selection but I was there for the entire trial on Friday. It was simultaneously frustrating and gratifying for me...but probably more frustrating. In fact, I found it demoralizing at times. The contributions AZ made seem to have fallen down the memory hole but I probably should have expected that.
It was gratifying in that with Meffert's testimony and Fradella's, at least it confirmed for me that AZ nailed a lot of the story.
I am trying to avoid rehashing AZ's contributions, I've done that before to little avail, but there is one curious matter I want to point out.
Back in May of 2007, I was the first one who made the connection between the HSOA subsidiary Cornerstone Marble and Granite and Nagin and his sons' company Stone Age.
American Zombie: We're getting rocked...are we getting rolled?
In the trial, Fradella claimed that 2 shipments of granite were sent to Stone Age on June 11, 2008 by Home Solutions of Louisiana from a satellite office in Florida. I was already informed of the Granite kickback scheme over a year previous to this actual transfer so I'm wondering if this was the only one or if the prosecution is just focusing only on this one. I was tipped off about the granite issue in May of 2007 at the same time I was informed about the plane ride to Chicago. This is the post I made that broke the story of the Chicago trip:
Interoperability v.2
So I'm curious how I knew about the granite transfer one year before the actual event happened...maybe I'm psychic? I think the likely answer is that my source overheard the deal being made even though the actual transfer had not yet taken place.
The other curious thing is that both the prosecution and Fradella were very careful not to name Cornerstone. They kept saying the granite came from Home Solutions of Louisiana, with no mention of Cornerstone.
I was starting to think maybe I got it wrong from the source but then the prosecution displayed exhibit 82, an email from Fradella complaining about how the granite in the first shipment to Stone Age's office in Baltimore was damaged. The subject line in that email clearly stated "Cornerstone". But the whole testimony was stating that the damaged granite, 40 slabs, was the fault of Home Solutions of Louisiana. I'm not sure why they are being so careful not to mention Cornerstone.
Here's the other thing I'm curious about. I have pretty good reason to believe that Ray Nagin was actually being paid by the Market Street developer, Michael Samuel, for his favor on the development project. Fradella admitted that Nagin asked him for 100k but he was only able to produce 50k after tapping a wealthy HSOA board member, Michael McGrath.
I'm curious why there's been no mention of any direct payments to Nagin from Samuel...I thought for sure that would come out in the trial and that Samuel would be asked to testify.
Only other thing I will point out at this time is the testimony from both Meffert and Fradella seemed extremely well rehearsed. The prosecution made a point to zing Aaron Bennett at every opportunity with both Fradella and Meffert providing the fodder. Fradella even went so far as to say he, Scott Sewell and others called Bennett's lack of tact "The Aaron Factor". Fradella kept referring to Bennett as a bull in a china shop.
At this point I have no idea what Nagin and Jenkins were thinking by taking this to trial. The defense was basically out to lunch. Jenkins would stand up and point out that all the witnesses had originally lied to avoid getting in trouble and that they have all cut deals with the DOJ....and that was pretty much the bulk of the defense.
The only thing I can think of is that they may be waiting to pull a rabbit out their hat in respect to the DOJ commenting scandal. I think, perhaps with a little help from team Heebe, Jenkins may be lying in wait to drop a bomb in the courtroom. As luck would have it, I'm hearing that bomb may be coming down the pipe this week in a another scandal with Nagin that my good friend Karen Gadbois tackled back in the day. It isn't on the agenda for the Nagin trial...but I'm betting it will be before long.
Stay tuned...
Oh yeah...you absolutely need to read this post Lamar published last night on CenLamar.
