Jury begins deliberations in Riddle corruption trial

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Jurors in Sam Riddle's corruption trial are to resume deliberations this morning after attorneys asked them Monday to decide whether Riddle is a "political pimp" or a consultant who had a greedy client.

Four men and eight women deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours Monday in the case of Riddle, accused of teaming up with former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers to shake down businesses with matters before the council and a city pension board in 2006 and 2007.

Playing off an FBI-monitored phone call in which Riddle said he might have become a pimp except he did not like working in the night air, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gardey said Riddle was "a political pimp and he sold Monica Conyers' vote to the highest bidder."

"It was a criminal partnership built on mutual need," Gardey told jurors.

But Riddle attorney Edward Wishnow said prosecutors used sensational allegations about Conyers to tar Riddle, who was her part-time chief of staff and had separate and legitimate consulting deals.

"Consultants are like lobbyists -- it's a way to gain access," Wishnow said in describing Riddle's role.

Riddle, 63, is charged in a seven-count indictment with felonies that include conspiracy, extortion and lying to the FBI. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

In seven days of testimony, jurors heard from a Greektown businessman and owners of a technology company, a strip club and a real estate company who said they were pressured to pay Riddle for consulting in order to get something they needed from Conyers. Jurors were told Riddle was the conduit for bribes paid to Conyers in connection with her deciding vote on the $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract the Detroit City Council awarded to Synagro Technologies Inc. of Texas.

Though neither testified, the words of Riddle and Conyers -- picked up on a long-running FBI wiretap of Riddle's cell phone -- provided much of the evidence.

Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery in June and was not a defendant. She is to be sentenced March 10. The businessmen, alleged extortion victims who could claim uncertainty about whether their cash went to Conyers, were only charged in the case of Synagro.

Riddle faces a second corruption trial later this year on allegations he and former state Rep. Mary Waters -- until recently his live-in companion -- bribed a Southfield councilman in connection with a pawn shop relocation. Shortly before Christmas, Riddle was charged in state court with pulling a shotgun on Waters after police reports said she came home to find him in bed with another woman.

Despite that, Waters was in the front row of the courtroom for Monday's closing arguments and said she is praying for Riddle's acquittal.

"Sam and I are longtime friends, and I am concerned," Waters said outside court.

"The thing that saddens me is that the defense really did not have time to prepare," Waters said. "It breaks my heart that we're in the United States of America and I don't feel that Sam got a fair trial ... because of the rush."

Riddle's lawyers repeatedly asked U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn to delay the trial, citing a mountain of evidence that included more than 20,000 wiretapped phone calls. But Cohn refused, noting he took the rare step of appointing two court-appointed attorneys to help Riddle prepare.

Cohn "hates Sam," said Waters.

Wishnow told jurors the trial is about Riddle, not Conyers, who according to evidence made brazen cash demands and once shocked a developer by reaching into his pocket at a restaurant and grabbing a wad of cash.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cares said the Conyers evidence was relevant because she and Riddle formed a corrupt partnership.

Cares noted wiretaps show that on more than one occasion, Riddle told Conyers how soon one of his consulting checks would clear the bank.

"Why should she care?" Cares asked jurors. "She cared because part of it was her money."

The court drew lots to dismiss three alternate jurors from the pool of 15. One of two black women on the jury was among the three sent home, leaving a jury of 12 with one African-American woman and another woman who is nonwhite. Riddle's attorneys expressed concern about the racial makeup of the jury before the trial began.

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