Witness says he provided confidential estimates
LEXINGTON, Ky. - LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The key witness in a federal bid-rigging case claimed Thursday that a highway construction contractor paid him bribe money in exchange for information that helped him get contracts with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
Jim Rummage, a former deputy state highway engineer, testified in U.S. District Court in Lexington that prominent Kentucky road-builder Leonard Lawson on four occasions gave him $5,000 in rolls of cash in exchange for confidential cost estimates.
"I take it as a reward for bringing him the estimates and as incentive to continue doing so," Rummage said.
Lawson has been charged along with former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and Lawson aide Brian Billings. Prosecutors claim they conspired to steer $130 million in state road projects to Lawson's construction companies.
All three men have pleaded not guilty.
In an effort to back up Rummage's claims, prosecutors played portions of secretly recorded audio tapes during a Thursday court hearing, hoping to get them admitted as evidence in an upcoming trial, a date for which hasn't yet been set.
U.S. District Judge Karl Forester hasn't yet decided whether to allow the recordings, which had been kept under wraps until Thursday, to be used. The recordings contain conversations between Rummage, Lawson and Billings.
Forester scheduled the hearing to determine whether the recordings meet legal standards to be used as evidence.
Rummage spent most of Thursday on the witness stand answering questions about the recordings, which prosecutors want to use in the trial. He is scheduled to resume testimony on Friday morning.
Rummage claimed that Lawson on four occasions gave him $5,000 rolls of cash.
Lawson denies that claim in at least one recorded conversation, saying "I have never given you any money for you to give me something."
Rummage, who is cooperating with prosecutors, said he initially provided the cost estimates to Nighbert and later directly to Lawson.
"At that time, I realized it was inappropriate and illegal," Rummage said.
In the recordings, Rummage told Lawson and Billings that he was worried he would be arrested for leaking the cost estimates.
Lawson encouraged Rummage to hire an attorney to represent him during the FBI investigation.
"They're scaring the hell out of you, and that's what they want to do," Lawson told Rummage on one of the calls.
"You need to stick with the truth that you've already told everybody," he said on the tape.
Rummage said he interpreted some of Lawson's comments on the recordings to mean he would cover the cost of hiring an attorney, a contention defense attorneys deny.
Rummage said he also had clandestine meetings with Billings who instead of speaking aloud handed him notes to discuss the matter, an apparent effort to avoid having the conversations recorded.
Lawson and Billings appeared to grow suspicious of Rummage's phone calls. Lawson asked Rummage at one point if he was recording their conversation.
"No," Rummage responded twice.
"I would hope as a friend that you're not setting me up on this phone call," Lawson said.
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