Mayor Takes The Stand

Herenton subpoenaed to Atlanta

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton has been summoned to Atlanta again, this time to testify in the public corruption trial of friend and former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.
Gale Jones Carson, spokeswoman for the Memphis mayor, confirmed Herenton was subpoenaed shortly before lunchtime Wednesday. It's unclear when the mayor is due in court.

Herenton declined comment.
Campbell, 52, Atlanta's two-term mayor from 1994 to 2002, is accused of pocketing thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions, cash, trips and home improvements in exchange for city contracts.
His trial, now in its second week, is the latest in a seven-year federal probe into corruption at Atlanta City Hall, which has resulted in the convictions of 10 former city officials and contractors tied to the Campbell administration.
It's the second time Herenton has been called to testify in the corruption sting. He is expected to be a procedural witness for the prosecution,
In 2003, Herenton and former aid Reginald French traveled to Atlanta to testify in the trial of Herbert McCall, then-Atlanta commissioner of administrative services.
McCall and Larry Wallace, Atlanta's chief operating officer at the time, came to Memphis in 2000 to persuade Herenton to hire two Atlanta contractors, but Herenton said he wasn't interested.
"When I found out all that crazy stuff was going on, I terminated all discussions," Herenton told The Commercial Appeal in 2004. "I could sense something wasn't right there."
According to trial evidence, French passed $10,000 from an Atlanta contractor to McCall and Wallace following a January 2000 breakfast at The Peabody. French has said he was an unwitting dupe in the transaction.
Herenton was a key witness in that trial.
McCall received a 21-month sentence for obstruction and lying about the Memphis trip. Wallace is serving four years for failing to file tax returns and accepting kickbacks from another contractor.
Contacted Wednesday, French, once Herenton's public services director who now heads the city's Alcohol Commission, said he had "absolutely not" been subpoenaed to testify in this trial.
Federal investigators also are examining a trip Campbell took to a Tunica casino with Herenton in 2000 to determine whether they were accompanied by any city contractors.
Last week, Henry Stansbury, who retired from Herenton's security detail about two years ago, testified about his contacts with Campbell when the Atlanta mayor visited Memphis.
Stansbury said that on at least six occasions, he was asked to take Campbell and former Atlanta city official Fred Prewitt from the Memphis airport to Mississippi casinos.
Prewitt has admitted being a "minority front" for companies trying to get city business in Atlanta.
Herenton's political ties to Campbell stretch back more than a decade when Campbell, then a city council member, had higher aspirations.
In October 1993, Herenton hosted a $100-a-person fund-raiser on Mud Island for Campbell in his bid to succeed former mayor Maynard Jackson, who didn't seek re-election because of health reasons.
In 1995, Campbell returned the favor, throwing Herenton a fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta that raised about $40,000.
And in 1996, Campbell delivered the keynote address at Herenton's swearing-in ceremony at the start of his second term. Later that year, Herenton hosted another fund-raiser for the former Atlanta mayor.
Campbell was the featured guest at a 1999 fund-raiser for Herenton at The Peabody, which raised $60,000.