BATON ROUGE, La. — A former elections official accused of skimming payoffs from voting machine contracts is hoping to persuade a judge to move his trial to another city.
Former state elections commissioner Jerry Fowler is charged with four counts of felony malfeasance in office, four of money-laundering conspiracy and one of filing false public records. If convicted on all nine counts, he faces a maximum sentence of more than 220 years in prison and $125,000 in fines.
The trial is set to begin Monday, and state District Judge Timothy Kelley must consider a motion by Fowler's attorney, Mike Small, to move the proceedings because publicity has "entirely corrupted" the trial atmosphere in the capitol city.
Small argued that critical legislative audits released in early 1999 had sent the local media into a "feeding frenzy."
Prosecutors contend an impartial jury can be impaneled.
Fowler was indicted in August 1999 in the midst of a re-election campaign for the office he held for 20 years. Two months later, he lost a primary election.
Fowler contended he was a victim of a political vendetta.
The charges stemmed from a routine audit that legislative auditor Dan Kyle's office conducted in 1998 of contracts to haul voter machines.
Using information gathered by Kyle, prosecutors started their own investigation in early 1999. They eventually accused Fowler of using a scheme to pad contracts, taking kickbacks that Assistant District Attorney Sandra Ribes said could be "in the millions of dollars."
In all, 22 people were indicted on charges related to a department whose primary responsibility is warehousing and maintaining the state's voting machines. Nine have pleaded guilty.
One of Kyle's audits said Fowler may have paid as much as $8 million more than required to buy machines, parts and maintenance services from Pasquale Ricci, owner of New Jersey-based Independent Voting Machine Services, and David Philpot of Birmingham, Ala., owner of Election Services Inc.
Ricci also was due to go on trial Monday. He faces three counts of being a principal to malfeasance and four counts of money laundering and could face up to 213 years in prison and a fine of up to $115,000. Philpot's trial is scheduled for early next year.