Corruption Trial

Brett Shipp reports

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DALLAS — The prosecution in the corruption trial of former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and others gave jurors a tantalizing glimpse of what authorities called a web of intrigue in which black leaders solicited bribes from white developers because, they said, it was time for those developers to pay.

“The game has done changed,” defendant Darren Reagan is heard saying on an audio tape played during opening statements by the prosecution.

Defense opening statements were taking place this afternoon. In a surprising development, Hill's attorney, Ray Jackson, said his client would take the stand during the trial.

Prosecutors say Reagan used the Black State Employees Association, which represented no employees but orchestrated protests, to put pressure on white developers to pay bribes to Hill and others.

Reagan is heard saying on the recording that white developers had become wealthy off southern Dallas projects, and that it was time for them to pay.

On the wiretap recording, prosecutors say, Reagan is plotting with Allen McGill -- who has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion -- to squeeze money from Bill Fisher, a white developer who is the principal informant in the government’s case.

“I love to see old Bill sweating like a pig,” Reagan says to McGill on the recording, adding that, “the days of offering a few donations are over.”

Prosecutors allege that hundreds of thousands of dollars ended up in the hands of Hill or the other defendants, much of it bribes from developer Brian Potashnik and his wife Cheryl.

The Potashniks were defendants in the case, but appear to have made plea deals. Those records are sealed. All the remaining defendants, including five on trial, are black.

Prosecutor Chad Meacham confirmed during his opening remarks to the jury that Potashnik would take the stand.

Meacham told jurors that Hill and his right-hand man, former Dallas Plan Commission member D’Angelo Lee, “violated the public trust in return for their official actions.” They “postponed votes and denied votes” in exchange for bribe payments.

Also during opening statements, Meacham said for the first time that before Fisher went to the FBI in November 2004 with information about the alleged shakedown, the FBI was already conducting a public corruption investigation in Dallas. The details of that investigation were not divulged in opening statements.

The public corruption case is groundbreaking for Dallas in its breadth. It originally involved 14 defendants and an alleged web of mischief involving extortion and bribes related to low-income housing deals. It took prosecutors 166 pages to explain their charges in the original indictment, handed down in the fall of 2007.

All but the five remaining defendants have pleaded guilty.

In 2005, the FBI raided former Dallas City Council member James Fantroy's security firm, as well as Hill's office at City Hall and the offices of the Potashniks' development company, Southwest Housing.

Agent were hunting for evidence of payoffs by the Potashniks to Hill, funneled through his associates.

The raids led to years of complaints -- by Hill and others -- that the raids unfairly targeted blacks.

During jury selection last week, Hill and the other defendants argued that prosecutors had unfairly excluded blacks from the jury. In a compromise, an additional black juror was added to the panel. Of the 16 jurors, including four alternates, four are black, four Hispanic and eight white.

Hill and his supporters have said the FBI investigation is a product of the Bush era, which they have said unfairly targeted Democrats and black leaders. Last week, Hill said he thinks U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should review the case, contending the charges are politically motivated.

Hill's recent public pronouncements alleging prosecutorial misconduct nearly got him thrown in jail for violating the gag order in the case, prompting talk that he might be contemplating a martyr strategy to drum up more support.