The CESSPOOL Turns "Fishy" As Jim Rummage Starts Case Against Contractor Leonard Lawson And Former Fletcher's Transportation Secretary, Bill Nighbert.
Rummage tells his story during hearing in bid-rigging case
By Tom Loftus
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The key witness in the highway bid-rigging case told his story publicly for the first time Thursday morning.
Jim Rummage, a former official in the state Transportation Cabinet, testified for more than two hours in a pretrial hearing in the case against road contractor Leonard Lawson, former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and Lawson employee Brian Billings.
Under friendly questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Dicken, Rummage described how he thought he was snared in a conspiracy to obtain confidential cost estimates for state road contracts in 2006 and 2007 and leak them to Lawson.
Rummage said Nighbert initially directed him to obtain the confidential estimates from the cabinet's estimating staff, which was under Rummage, because Nighbert said he was checking to see if the confidential estimates on certain projects had leaked.
But Rummage said that, after he had obtained one estimate for Nighbert in 2006, the secretary directed him to take it personally to Lawson.
“At that point I realized it was inappropriate and illegal,” Rummage said.
Still, Rummage said he followed orders and took the estimate to Lawson's home in Lexington.
He said that when he and Lawson were finished they walked out of the house and Lawson stopped and went to a large freezer. He said Lawson pulled out “several packages of fish … vacuum sealed” and gave them to Rummage.
Then, Rummage testified, Lawson gave him something else.
“He just slipped something into my pocket,” Rummage said.
He testified that it was a wad of $100 bills totaling $5,000. He said he tried to refuse the money and argued with Lawson.
“I eventually took it,” Rummage said.
That was the first of four $5,000 payments Rummage said he received from Lawson for his help in leaking the estimates, which prosecutors contend the road contractor used to increase the amounts he was bidding to win state road contracts.
Lawson sat quietly with Nighbert and Billings behind defense attorneys during the hearing.
Also during the hearing, tapes of conversations Rummage had with the defendants were played in court for the first time.
More tapes are expected to be played, and defense attorneys will have their turn to question Rummage Thursday afternoon.
The hearing is to determine whether the tapes, and statements by Rummage and other witnesses, are admissible at trial. A trial date has not been set.
Lawson, Nighbert and Billings are charged with conspiring in to leak confidential cost estimates for road contracts that allowed Lawson to maximize the amount he bid on state contracts because his companies seldom faced competing bidders. Rummage has not been charged.
The indictment alleges that after Nighbert left as transportation secretary in December 2007, Lawson funneled $67,251 to him in bribes for that information. All three defendants are charged with obstructing justice for allegedly trying to prevent Rummage from cooperating with investigators in early 2008.
Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.
By Tom Loftus
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The key witness in the highway bid-rigging case told his story publicly for the first time Thursday morning.
Jim Rummage, a former official in the state Transportation Cabinet, testified for more than two hours in a pretrial hearing in the case against road contractor Leonard Lawson, former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and Lawson employee Brian Billings.
Under friendly questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Dicken, Rummage described how he thought he was snared in a conspiracy to obtain confidential cost estimates for state road contracts in 2006 and 2007 and leak them to Lawson.
Rummage said Nighbert initially directed him to obtain the confidential estimates from the cabinet's estimating staff, which was under Rummage, because Nighbert said he was checking to see if the confidential estimates on certain projects had leaked.
But Rummage said that, after he had obtained one estimate for Nighbert in 2006, the secretary directed him to take it personally to Lawson.
“At that point I realized it was inappropriate and illegal,” Rummage said.
Still, Rummage said he followed orders and took the estimate to Lawson's home in Lexington.
He said that when he and Lawson were finished they walked out of the house and Lawson stopped and went to a large freezer. He said Lawson pulled out “several packages of fish … vacuum sealed” and gave them to Rummage.
Then, Rummage testified, Lawson gave him something else.
“He just slipped something into my pocket,” Rummage said.
He testified that it was a wad of $100 bills totaling $5,000. He said he tried to refuse the money and argued with Lawson.
“I eventually took it,” Rummage said.
That was the first of four $5,000 payments Rummage said he received from Lawson for his help in leaking the estimates, which prosecutors contend the road contractor used to increase the amounts he was bidding to win state road contracts.
Lawson sat quietly with Nighbert and Billings behind defense attorneys during the hearing.
Also during the hearing, tapes of conversations Rummage had with the defendants were played in court for the first time.
More tapes are expected to be played, and defense attorneys will have their turn to question Rummage Thursday afternoon.
The hearing is to determine whether the tapes, and statements by Rummage and other witnesses, are admissible at trial. A trial date has not been set.
Lawson, Nighbert and Billings are charged with conspiring in to leak confidential cost estimates for road contracts that allowed Lawson to maximize the amount he bid on state contracts because his companies seldom faced competing bidders. Rummage has not been charged.
The indictment alleges that after Nighbert left as transportation secretary in December 2007, Lawson funneled $67,251 to him in bribes for that information. All three defendants are charged with obstructing justice for allegedly trying to prevent Rummage from cooperating with investigators in early 2008.
Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.
Labels: Crime, Keeping them honest, Punishment
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 12:28 PM
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